


1 




Qass. 
Book. 






SERMONS 



BY 



S. H TYNG, D-D, 



SEEMONS 



PREACHED IN THE 



CHURCH OF THE EPIPHANY, 



PHILADELPHIA. 



« J 
STEPHEN H.'TYNG, D. D. 

RECTOR. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
PRINTED BY WILLIAM STAVELY, 

No. 12 Pear Street. 

1839. 



&*$>* 

^ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1639, by 
Stephen H. Tyng, 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



c j 3 °y 



TEREOTTPED BY L. JOHNSON, 
PHILADELPHIA. 



TO 



THE RIGHT REVEREND 

ALEXANDER VIETS GRISWOLD, D.D. 

BISHOP OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE EASTERN DIOCESE, 

AND 
PRESIDING BISHOP IN THE HOUSE OF BISHOPS, 

THE AUTHOR OF THE FOLLOWING SERMONS 

HUMBLY AND AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATES HIS VOLUME. 

UNDER HIS INSTRUCTIONS HE WAS PREPARED F<Jk HIS MINISTRY, AND BY THE IMPOSITION 
OP HIS HANDS, HE WAS SENT FORTH TO FULFIL IT. THE PRESENT FRUIT OP HIS 
LABOURS IS AN EXHIBITION OF THE TRUTHS WHICH, UNDER HIS GUIDANCE, 
HE WAS TAUGHT TO EMBRACE AND PREACH. AND WHILE HE IN- 
SCRIBES THEM TO HIS VENERABLE PRECEPTOR AND RELATIVE, 
AS A SMALL MARK OF INEXTINGUISHABLE GRATITUDE AND 
LOVE, IT IS WITH THE PRAYER THAT THE HEAVEN- 
LY BLESSING WHICH HAS SO DIGND7IED AND 
PROSPERED THE FATHER'S LABOURS FOR 
THE BENEFIT OF MANKIND, MAY IN 
SOME SMALL MEASURE DESCEND 
UPON THE HUMBLER EFFORTS 
OF THE SON. 



PREFACE 



The following sermons have been published to gratify 
the repeated solicitations of many of the personal friends 
of the author. They are but indiscriminate selections from 
the preparations which have been made for his parochial 
ministry. That they possess any other merit than the 
truths which they contain, he cannot pretend, But that 
they are faithful exhibitions of gospel truth, he would hope 
none of his readers will deny. God has blessed them in 
making them the instruments of gathering many souls for 
himself; and it is the author's sincere prayer, that this 
blessing, in the same result, may follow them still. 

To the affectionate and united congregation who have 
placed themselves under his pastoral care, he feels assured 
that these sermons will prove an acceptable token of re- 
membrance and love. They will often call to mind, scenes 
which neither he nor his people will ever forget. No 
pastor has ever been more highly blessed with the affec- 
tion, respect, and serious attention of an harmonious con- 
gregation, than has the author of these sermons, as the 
Rector of the church in which they were delivered. And 
while so far as cordially reciprocated attachment is con- 
cerned, he can speak unhesitatingly, he would also hope 



PREFACE. 

that in regard to the benefits from God upon his ministry 
among them, he may in some degree also be permitted to 
say, that his people have not been without their privileges 
and blessings in this connexion. 

For eighteen years from the present date, five of which 
have been passed with his present charge, has the author 
been permitted to preach the unsearchable riches of a 
Saviour's grace. The present volume exhibits the great 
truths which it has been his privilege and delight to pro- 
claim. Whatever may be the duration of his ministry in 
time to come, these are the truths which, by the help of 
God, he shall still cease not to preach and to teach. That 
God the Saviour may own and bless his efforts as the 
means of bringing many sons and daughters to glory, 
among his beloved people in the Church of the Epiphany, 
is the author's earnest prayer. And in giving these few 
of his sermons to the public, no other desire accompanies 
them, than that they may be made the instruments of more 
extensively glorifying the Great Emanuel in the conversion 
of many precious souls by his power. 

Philadelphia, March 4, 1839. 



CONTENTS 



SERMON I. 

GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. Paga 

Amos iv. 12. — Prepare to meet thy God, Israel. ----- 9 
SERMON II. 

GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 

Amos iv. 12. — Prepare to meet thy God, Israel. ----- 25 
SERMON HI. 

GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 

Amos iv. 12. — Prepare to meet thy God, Israel. ----- 39 
SERMON IV. 

GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 

Amos iv. 12. — Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. ----- 56 
SERMON V. 

THE NEW CREATURE. 

2 Corinthians v. 17. — Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new crea- 
ture ; old things are passed away ; behold, all things arc become new. - 71 

SERMON VI. 

THE NEW CREATURE. 

2 Corinthians v. 17. — Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new crea- 
ture ; old things are passed away ; behold, all things are become new. - 85 

SERMON VII. 

THE LORD'S SIDE. 

Exodus xxxii. 26. — Who is on the Lord's side ? - - - - - - 100 

SERMON VIII. 

THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 

Ezekiel ix. 3 — 6. — And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had 
the writer's ink-horn by his side ; and the Lord said unto him, Go through 
the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon 
the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations 
that be done in the midst thereof. And to the others, he said in my hear- 
ing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite; let not your eye spare, 
neither have ye pity; slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little 
children, and women ; but come not near any man upon whom is the mark : 
and begin at my sanctuary. - - - - - - - - -114 

SERMON IX. 

THE RESCUED BRAND. 

Zechariah iii. 2. — Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire ? - - - 131 



8 CONTENTS. 

SERMON X. 

THE SINNER'S CHOICE. Page 

St. John xviii. 40. — Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but 
Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. ...... \4Q 

SERMON XL 

THE CHRISTIAN'S ROCK. 

Deuteronomy xxxii. 31. — For their rock is not as our rock, even our ene- 
mies themselves being judges. -------- 162 

SERMON XII. 

A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 

Amos viii. 11, 12. — Behold the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will 
send a famine in the land ; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, 
but of hearing the word of the Lord ; and they shall wander from sea to 
sea, and from the north even to the east ; they shall run to and fro, to seek 
the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. ----- - 179 

SERMON XIII. 

LITTLE SINS. 

Genesis xix. 20. — Is it not a little one ? and my soul shall live. - - 198 

SERMON XIV. 

THE VALLEY OF DECISION. 

Joel iii. 14. — Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision ; for the day 
of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. ------ 213 

SERMON XV. 

THE CHRISTIAN'S HINDRANCES. 

Genesis xxiv. 56. — And he said unto them, Hinder me not, seeing the Lord 
hath prospered my way. --------- 225 

SERMON XVI. 

DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. 

Jeremiah vi. 4. — Wo unto us ! for the day goeth away ; for the shadows of 
the evening are stretched out. -------- 240 

SERMON XVII. 
THE sorrows of old age. 
Ecclesiastes vii. 3. — If a man live many years, so that the days of his years 
be many, and his soul be not filled with good, I say that an untimely birth 
is better than he. ----------- 255 

SERMON XVIII. 

DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 

Genesis xi. 32. — The days of Terah were two hundred and five years ; and 
Terah died in Haran. ----.-----209 

SERMON XIX. 

INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. 

1 Kings ii. 28. — And Joab fled unto the tabernacle of the Lord, and caught 
hold on the horns of the altar. -------- 283 

SERMON XX. 

THE LATTER END. 

Deuteronomy xxxii. 29. — O that they were wise, that they understood this, 
that they would consider their latter end. ------ 297 



SERMON L 



GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 



Amos iv. 12. — Prepare to meet thy God, Israel. 

We commence this day, the course of another 
ecclesiastical year, with the season of Advent. Our 
attention is particularly, and properly called, to the 
consideration of the coming of our great God and 
Saviour Jesus Christ, as God manifest in the flesh. 
The special services of the Liturgy for this season, 
have reference to this great fact ; and it becomes the 
preacher's duty to lead to it also. This view of pro- 
priety, leads me now to call your minds to the solemn 
message of our present text. 

" Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel." 
In the language of the Scripture, the design of 
Almighty God in any way to bless or to punish man- 
kind, is often represented by the declaration of his 
coming among them for that purpose. The peculiar 
connexion which existed between the Israelites as a 
people, and God as their particular Ruler and King, 
may be referred to, as rendering this form of expres- 
sion entirely intelligible, and manifestly appropriate. 

2 9 



10 GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. [SER. I. 

As earthly rulers move from place to place in their 
dominions, to administer justice, and to fulfil the pur- 
poses of government, so the Almighty Ruler, as the 
special King of Israel, was exhibited to their view, in 
the various dispensations of his providence, and in 
the employment of his chosen instruments of blessing 
or chastisement, as coming personally among them. 

In his own existence, God necessarily fills all space, 
and is at all times, equally present, in every portion 
of the universe which he hath formed. Yet he fre- 
quently speaks of himself, sometimes as dwelling 
among his people, and then as departing from them ; 
sometimes as being near to them, and a God at hand, 
and at others as being far from them, and a God 
afar off ; sometimes as visiting the earth, to bless it 
with plenteousness, or to punish it for transgres- 
sion, and at others, as looking down upon its inhabit- 
ants, in observation, either of their uprightness and 
integrity, or of their depravity and alienation from 
himself. All these forms of expression arise, from 
the peculiar government which he exercised over the 
Israelites, often called a theocracy, under which, he 
condescended to fill the office of their ruler, allowing 
them to choose him as such, as he saj^s to them, "the 
Lord your God was your King," and they as a chosen 
and peculiar people, were considered as the special 
subjects of his authority. 

Because every instrument, either of good or evil, 
was powerful and effectual only as employed by him, 
God is also often said to have personally done, that 
which was done by his permission. And because the 
accomplishment of the good or evil referred to, was 
an especial manifestation of his power and provi- 



SER. I.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 11 

dence, and he seemed to be particularly present, 
where the effects of his influence were thus exhibited, 
under such circumstances, he is spoken of as being 
nearer to the subjects of his authority, than upon 
ordinary occasions. When by the famine, the pesti- 
lence, or the sword, he was to punish the transgres- 
sions of the ungodly, and the loftiness of man was to 
be bowed down, and the haughtiness of man was to 
be made low, he speaks to them in the language of 
solemn personal denunciation, that he will arise, and 
shake terribly the earth, that he will come near unto 
them, as a swift witness against their guilt. And 
when he would deliver his people, by conquest over 
their enemies, or establish them in prosperity, in the 
land which he had given them, he proclaims in the 
sublime expression of his triumphant purpose, that 
he would ride upon the heavens for their help, and in 
his excellency upon the sky ; that he would move in 
the whirlwind, and in the storm, and the clouds should 
be the dust of his feet. While he thus warns his 
people of his approach, either for purposes of mercy 
or judgment, he commands them also, to prepare for 
his reception ; to be ready to meet him, with that 
reverence, and gratitude, and submission, which com- 
ported with his high authority, and with their depend- 
ance upon his power. 

In the particular message of our text, there is a 
reference to the severe and painful chastisements, 
which the Israelites had already received from him. 
These afflictions had not been allowed by them to 
produce their proper effect, in bringing to repentance, 
those who had before transgressed the divine com- 
mands. God threatens them therefore, with the 



12 GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. [SER. I. 

further execution of his determinations for punish- 
ment, and solemnly admonishes them, to be prepared 
to meet him at his coming among them, for this 
purpose. 

At the time in which this message was delivered 
by the prophet, the people of Israel, to whom it was 
addressed, may be regarded as exhibiting the two 
distinct characters, of the Spiritual Israel, and the 
Idolatrous Israel. A very large majority of them 
had gone astray from God, under the idolatry which 
had been established in their land. But, as God 
had informed Elijah in a previous time, there was 
still a remnant who had not bowed the knee to Baal. 
There was a nominal Israel known to man, and there 
was a spiritual Israel also among them, secretly dis- 
cerned by God. In my present application of the 
message before us, I wish to consider it under these 
two aspects ; and first, as addressed to the latter 
class; as the divine message to the Spiritual Israel, 
the chosen, peculiar people of God. 

The selection of the Israelites from the other 
nations of men, to be the depositary of God's revela- 
tions to the world, is frequently used in the Scrip- 
tures, in illustration of the election of a people under 
the Gospel dispensation, from all classes of men, to 
become the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ; who, 
as believers in his Gospel, are accepted in him, as the 
peculiar people of God ; and by the power of his 
Spirit, are created anew in holiness after his image, 
and made zealous and persevering in their obedience 
to his laws. This people are called in the Scripture, 
" the Israel of God," in distinction from " Israel after 
the flesh." The contrast between them is recognized 



SER. L] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. IS 

in that one declaration of St. Paul, "all are not Israel 
that are of Israel." To this people, in all lands, con- 
verted and sanctified by the Spirit of God, and justi- 
fied in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, are the 
promises of the Gospel made. And the divine method 
of government over the nation of Israel, illustrates 
the Lord's system of spiritual discipline over those 
who are thus called according to his promise. 

To this people before me, I now address the mes- 
sage of the text. As the spiritual Israel, I refer to 
those among my hearers, who have come unto Christ, 
as a people that shall serve him ; who have accepted 
him as all their salvation, and all their desire; in 
whose eternal security he sees of the travail of his 
soul, and is satisfied; and over whose redemption 
through his blood, he will rejoice forever. To these 
I speak. To the Christians of this congregation, as 
the children of God, the believing, obedient subjects 
of our divine Emanuel, whose hearts the Lord the 
Spirit hath directed into the love of God, and the 
patient waiting for Christ, I address myself as to 
God's spiritual Israel : — " Prepare to meet thy God, 
O Israel." 

I. We will remark upon the events which may be 
referred to as the coming of God. 

Beside the minor and local dispensations of the 
divine providence which are spoken of under this 
character, there are two grand events in the history 
of the world, which are referred to in the Scripture 
under this peculiar designation. They are, the per- 
sonal advent of God in his incarnation, for the re- 
demption of his people, when the fulness of the God- 
head dwelt bodily among men ; and the second per- 
B 



14 GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. [SER. 1. 

sonal advent of God the Saviour, to judge the world 
in righteousness, when every one of us must give an 
account of himself to God. To these two great 
events our reference will be made, and the people of 
God are exhorted to prepare to meet them. 

1 . The first advent of God to put away sin by the 
sacrifice of himself, in some of its aspects, may be 
considered as a past event. But in regard to its final 
object, the accomplishment of man's salvation, it 
must be considered as enduring until every ransomed 
soul has been brought home, converted from the 
world, and fully devoted unto God. Through a long 
succession of ages, believers in the divine promise, 
had looked forward to this coming of God, as the 
great object of their desire. They were waiting in 
expectation of the full consolation of the people of 
God. They expected a Redeemer, who should speak 
in righteousness, and be mighty to save ; who should 
be able to say, " Look unto me, and be ye saved, all 
the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is 
none else ;" and of whom they could reply in thank- 
ful welcome, " Lo, this is our God, we have waited 
for him, and he will save us." The purpose of his 
first advent, was not to condemn, but to save. It was 
to collect into one fold, his sheep who were scattered 
in the midst of this sinful world, that they might be 
saved through him forever. 

This great purpose of his coming, he is effecting 
every day. In each instance in which he converts a 
sinner unto himself, and takes possession of a mind 
thus renewed, he may be considered as having come 
anew with the Holy Ghost and with power, to seek 
and to save that which was lost. He has yet abroad 



SER. I.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 15 

in the world " much people," as he said to Paul of 
guilty, unbelieving Corinth, who know him not, who 
have never been taught to call upon his name, and who, 
perhaps, are now like that same chosen vessel, per- 
secuting him ignorantly in unbelief. Millions of souls 
yet unborn, undoubtedly will be born again for the 
inheritance which he has provided for his children. 
Among those who hear me, there are doubtless many, 
to whom the glad tidings of his salvation will yet be 
made known, and into whose hearts the word shall 
yet come with power, and with much assurance, 
though they are now wandering in all the follies and 
guiltiness of the world. Under this view, the exhor- 
tation of the text may still be addressed to the Israel 
of God, in reference to the first coming of their King. 
To the heart yet unchanged, the real advent of Christ 
for man's salvation, is as much a future event, as it 
was to Abraham. And when the glad hour of its 
conversion shall come, God will, for the first time, 
be effectually manifested to that heart, as a Saviour. 
He will then become its salvation. To very many 
souls his way is not yet prepared. He has not come 
to them because they are not ready to receive him. 
He stands at the door, and knocks; and whenever 
there is in them a willingness to admit him, and they 
are ready to open the door, he will delay no longer, 
but will come in to them, and will sup with them, and 
they with him. Then the converted soul shall be 
able to say, " Behold, God is become my salvation, I 
will trust, and not be afraid ;" " my flesh shall rest in 
hope," " for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." 

2. The second advent of God the Saviour, which 
is for all who listen to me, still a future event, will be 



16 GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. [SER. I. 

for the full salvation of his people, for the universal 
judgment of the world, and for the final settlement 
of his glorious and everlasting kingdom. Then, he 
who was once offered to bear the sins of many, 
shall appear without sin unto salvation, for all who 
have believed on his name. All that the Father hath 
given him, shall come to him ; and of those who thus 
come to him, he will lose none, but will raise them 
up at the last day. This glorious advent of the Re- 
deemer as the universal Judge, is exhibited in the 
Scriptures in the most sublime and glowing language. 
He is to come in the clouds, attended by innumerable 
hosts of angels, with the instant manifestation of the 
lightning. He is to be seated on a throne of glory, 
and all nations are to be gathered before him. One 
grand division shall separate forever the immortal 
spirits for whom that day has been prepared ; and to 
its own abode, its final dwelling place, shall every soul 
depart. 

This solemn day is a future one ; but how far re- 
moved, neither men nor angels know. It cannot 
come until God's purposes of grace in reference to 
this fallen world have been all fulfilled; until all 
Christ's sheep have heard his voice, and followed 
him; until those who are unholy, are so perversely 
and voluntarily unholy, that they must remain unholy 
still. But though the actual day of universal judg- 
ment may be far remote, the coming of Christ to call 
us personally to account, cannot be. This is near at 
hand. For this most important change, his people are 
to be well prepared. " Behold, I come quickly," he 
says to every one who has entered into covenant with 
him, "hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take 



SER. I.] GOD S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 17 

thy crown. " Few will be the years before every 
child of God in this assembly shall have been called 
to meet the God of his salvation ; to stand before the 
throne of him whom his soul loveth, and to rejoice in 
the eternal possession of the riches of his grace, and 
of an unfading crown of glory. The day of reunion 
with the body spiritualized and rendered holy, as an 
eternal companion for the ransomed spirit, may be far 
postponed ; and long may our mortal part sleep under 
the care of Jesus, before the arrival of the hour in 
which the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of 
man, and return to life. But not so far postponed, 
the hour of bliss for us. To-morrow we may be 
with Christ. This night may finish our wanderings 
in a land of strangers, and call us to our final home 
with him. How solemn, how tranquil, how secure, 
the joy with which the believer may look forward to 
this hour of permanent reunion with his Lord ! 



Yet a few years, or days, perhaps, 
Or moments pass in silent lapse, 

And time with me shall be no more — 
No more, the sun these eyes shall view, 
Earth o'er these limbs, her dust shall strew, 

And life's delusive dream be o'er. 



To this second coming of Emanuel, our glorious 
King, the exhortation of the text directs the watch- 
fulness of the people of God. Much is to be done 
for every one of us, before we can feel altogether 
willing to say in reference to it, " even so, come Lord 
Jesus, come quickly." And O, let us make it the 
subject of earnest effort and prayer, that by the in* 
dwelling of the Spirit, we may be prepared to appear 
b2 3 



18 GOD S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. [SER. I. 

unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing 
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! 

These two great events in the history of the world, 
and in the history of each redeemed soul, which is 
but the world in miniature, are known in the Scrip- 
tures, and are to be considered by us, as the coming 
of our great God and Saviour. He first comes, as a 
crucified, atoning Saviour, to the hearts of his people ; 
to give them pardon and peace ; to take from them, 
all hardness of heart, and contempt of his word ; to 
bestow upon them the grace, which is able to keep 
them from falling; and to present them before the 
throne of his glory, with exceeding joy. He comes 
to raise them from the ruins of the fall, and to make 
them an holy temple, an habitation of God through 
the Spirit. And happy is he who has part in this first 
resurrection, over him, the second death shall have 
no power. Having thus perfected the purpose of his 
first advent, in the soul of every child of God ; having 
brought the wanderer home to his fold, and taught 
him to go in and out, and find pasture, he comes yet 
again, to carry this child of grace, to a better country, 
that is, an heavenly. He comes to make an eternal 
end of sin and trial for his soul, and to crown him 
with unspeakable bliss, in the presence of his God. 
He comes to carry him in his arms, to living pastures, 
and to fountains of the water of life ; to that river 
of love, whose streams make glad the city of our God, 
the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. 
To these two important days, the day of our new 
birth of grace, and the day of our new birth to glory ; 
the day in which Christ comes to our hearts, to make 
us his servants, and the day in which he comes for 



SER. I.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 19 

our souls to make us his saints ; — I would direct the 
attention of the Israel of God, as the events pointed 
out, in our present exhortation, " Prepare to meet 
thy God, O Israel." 

II. This leads me to describe the state of mind, 
which is implied in this call for preparation. I must 
ask your distinct attention to the required prepara- 
tion for each of the two advents of Christ, which we 
have now separately considered. His people are to 
be prepared for his coming to bless them with for- 
giveness of sin, and with a spiritual renewal of their 
mind ; and for his coming to take them to himself in 
everlasting blessedness. 

1. In regard to his first advent, a divine messenger 
was sent to make ready his way ; and in the wilder- 
ness of a guilty world, a voice from God was heard, 
crying, " prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make 
straight in the desert, a highway for our God." Such 
is the message to be still delivered, and such is the 
work to be still perfected, in the case of all who are 
led to receive Jesus as their Saviour, and to become 
in him, by a spiritual regeneration, the children of 
God. To every unconverted soul, he is waiting to 
be gracious. His arm is not shortened, that it cannot 
save, nor his ear heavy, that he cannot hear ; but the 
sins of men separate them from him ; and they have 
no part in his salvation, because they are not ready 
to receive him, as their Lord and their God. When 
you are humbled under a deep conviction of sin ; 
when you are made to feel the dangers which your 
transgressions have brought upon yourselves; when 
you see that you have provoked against you, the wrath 
of an holy God ; when your souls can thus be made 



20 god's message to Israel. [ser. i. 

athirst for God, and long for the free and full salva- 
tion which Christ bestows ; he is ready to enter into 
your hearts, as his permanent abode, and to bless you 
with the possession of a hope of glory. But this 
work of preparation must be finished, before your 
hearts can find peace with him. The world and self 
are to be forsaken and denied. Your own righteous- 
ness as a ground of hope, is to be relinquished. A 
deep sense of the holiness of the law and government 
of God, is to be impressed upon your minds. And 
you are to be made to feel, that it is a fearful thing 
to fall into the hands of the living God, without that 
hope in Christ, which maketh not ashamed. 

In a multitude of cases, in which this work will be 
accomplished, it has not yet been done. There are 
many wanderers from the fold, still lost in the moun- 
tains, thinking not of the kindness of the shepherd, 
and conscious of no wish to return to him. There 
are many too, who though they are partially awak- 
ened, are not yet willing to yield themselves to the 
will of God, or prepared to choose him as their final 
portion. How appropriate to all such, in reference 
to the first advent of Christ, is the exhortation of our 
text! — "Prepare to meet thy God." Be ready to 
receive him, as your shield, and your exceeding great 
reward. Allow yourselves to be convinced of the 
vanity of the world, of the insufficiency of all self- 
dependence, of the necessity of a living, lasting union 
by faith, with Jesus Christ. He is ready to bless 
you with a full redemption through his blood. But 
he cannot pardon, while you will not confess your 
guilt. He cannot raise you up, while proud and 
boastful in your self-reflections, you will not believe 



SER. I.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 21 

that you have fallen. He cannot bind a heart that 
is not broken, nor heal a spirit which has not been 
bruised. They who are whole need not a physician, 
but they who are sick. Long since might you have 
been rejoicing in the salvation of the Gospel, but for 
the obstacles, which you have voluntarily thrown in a 
Saviour's way. And before the morrow, you may 
be happy in the enjoyment of a Saviour's love, if you 
can now be persuaded, to prepare the way for his 
coming to your heart, and to yield that heart to his 
control. But if you voluntarily remain alienated 
from him, and put far from you the grace which he 
so freely offers, year by year will still pass by, and 
find you yet, a poor captive of Satan, bound in chains 
of darkness, and still less and less inclined, to come 
to Jesus for the life you need. I beseech you, my 
friends, to lay aside this spirit of enmity, and to 
become prepared for this first advent of the Lord the 
Saviour. Seek the Lord while he may be found; 
call upon him, while he is near ; let the wicked for- 
sake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, 
and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have 
mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abun- 
dantly pardon. 

2. In regard to the second coming of Christ, when 
every eye shall see him shining in glory, and among 
all the kindreds of the earth, they who have pierced 
him by their ingratitude and sin, shall wail because 
of him, the exhortation of our text becomes still more 
solemn and important. What progress in holiness 
shall be too large a preparation for that momentous 
hour of the soul's existence ? What life of faith can 
be too elevated ? What heavenliness of character can 



22 god's message to Israel. [ser. i. 

be too exalted ? What spirituality of affection can be 
too intense, as an education for that day of God ? To 
all the spiritual Israel must this address be solemnly 
applied. There must be with you, my brethren, a 
consistent, growing life of faith and piety ; affections 
set upon things above ; and a disposition to find all 
your treasures hid in Jesus Christ. 

Your own souls are to be purified in holiness ; to 
be exercised in communion with God ; and to acquire 
the taste, the habits, and the dialect of heaven. The 
peculiar employments and joys of an holier world are 
to be made the subjects of your study, and the objects 
of your desire. It must have become the portion of 
your choice, to depart hence, and be with Christ, 
before you will be prepared to meet your God, or be 
able to assure your hearts before him. 

The souls of others are to be saved. The holy 
kingdom of the Lord Jesus is to be established in 
the world; and the various means which he has 
placed in your hands, to build up this kingdom, are 
to be employed by you, with ardour, and thankful- 
ness, and success. But alas, how little of your 
portion of this work has been accomplished ! What 
darkness and misery prevail over large regions of 
the earth, while perhaps, to very few, have you ever 
given the cup of living water, for Christ's sake! 
What precious souls have you assisted to save ? Are 
there any in heaven, are there any on the earth, who 
can praise God, that they have lived in the same age, 
or in the same world, with you? O, you have yet 
much, very much to do. And every grain which you 
can take from the vast heap of human wretchedness, 
is so much done towards breaking down the power 



SER. I.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 23 

of Satan, and establishing the dominion of the Lord 
Jesus among men. 

Personal holiness and active beneficence constitute 
the whole amount of pure and undented religion, as 
exemplified in the character which is required of the 
people of God. And though no worth can appertain 
to either, as proceeding from an imperfect and sinful 
being, yet undoubtedly, the higher are our attainments 
in both, the more full of peace and comfort will our 
souls be, at the coming of our God. Our triumph in 
that hour, will not rest indeed upon personal excel- 
lence, but upon the unsearchable riches of Christ. 
We shall look far higher, than to ourselves; and 
much farther back, than to our own lives, for our 
objects of praise. We shall ascribe all the glory, to 
that God who hath from the beginning, chosen us 
unto salvation, through the sanctification of the Spirit, 
and a belief of the truth. But we shall remember 
our work of faith, and labour of love, and patience 
of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of 
God and our Father, as testifying to our hearts, our 
election of God. 

In all the duties of an holy, active life, the spiritual 
Israel are to be prepared to meet their God. Beloved 
brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abound- 
ing in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know, 
that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. You have 
a great work to do, and but little time in which to do it. 
Many souls around you, are yet unconverted. Many 
are growing cold and careless. Many are but slowly 
progressing in grace. And for all, much sin is to be 
subdued, and much likeness to God attained, before 
they shall become meet to be partakers of the inherit- 



24 god's message to Israel. [ser. i. 

ance of the saints in light. All this is to be done 
quickly. God's appointed hours are rapidly approach- 
ing, and his plans of providence are fast developing. 
The Judge standeth at the door. O, when he comes, 
shall he find faith on the earth ? Shall he find you 
waiting for his approach ? Shall you be clothed in 
his righteousness, and presented without spot before 
him ? Be ye sure of this. See to it, that your souls 
are safe in Jesus Christ. Be anxious and watchful 
for this great concern. And when the door is shut, 
irrevocably shut, be certain, that it shall be closed 
for your security, in an abode of eternal peace and 
triumph. 



SERMON II. 



GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 



Amos iv. 12. — Prepare to meet thy God, Israel. 

In presenting this message from Almighty God to 
his people, as a subject for your consideration, I pro- 
posed to speak of it, first, as a message to God's 
spiritual Israel, and secondly, as addressed to the 
idolatrous Israel In one discourse upon this first 
division, I have spoken of the events which are to be 
referred to, as the coming of our God ; and of the 
state of mind, which is required, as a preparation for 
these events. 

III. The third topic for remark in this view of the 
text, will be the character under which God will come 
to his spiritual Israel. He is theirs, and he is their 
God. " Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel." 
Whether our reference be made to the first, or to the 
second advent of our God, the message of the text 
may be welcomed with joy by all his people. If he 
comes to them in their unconverted state, to deliver 
them from the bondage of their sins, to ransom them 
from the power of eternal death, and to make them 
C 4 25 



26 god's message to Israel. [ser. ii. 

free with the liberty of the sons of God ; or, if he 
comes to them, when their earthly probation has 
been finished, to bring them unto Zion, with songs 
and everlasting joy upon their heads ; he comes to 
them in each case, as their God ; as a Saviour who 
is welcome to their hearts, and whose love to them, 
is an everlasting love. To this attractive and pre- 
cious character of an approaching Redeemer, I desire 
now to direct your notice, while I ask you to consider 
the relation which he sustains to his people, and the 
mutual property which they have in each other. 

He comes to them, not as an enemy whom they 
fear, but as a friend in whom they delight ; not as a 
Ruler, whose power only makes him the more ter- 
rible, but as a protector, in whose ability to save unto 
the uttermost, they can altogether confide. There is 
a charm given by the personal possession of a trea- 
sure, which can never belong to that which is not our 
own. However valuable an object may be in itself, 
it cannot fail to become in our estimation, far more 
so, if we are permitted to appropriate it to ourselves. 
Now the glorious Emanuel is in himself, an inex- 
haustible treasure. All riches of wisdom, and power, 
and love are laid up in him. But he becomes to our 
view, still more precious, as his Spirit enables us to 
make him our own. When we have been taught to 
say in the assurance of a vital lasting union with 
him, " my beloved is mine, and I am his," we have 
learned a full answer to the inquiries of the world, 
"what is thy beloved, more than another beloved ?" 
To those who believe, he is precious; and though 
now they see him not, yet believing in him, they re- 
joice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory. They 



SER. II.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 21 

experience from day to day, his reviving, transform- 
ing power. And in the enjoyment of peace with him, 
and with all the charms of property and personal in- 
terest, they can say of him, " this God is our God 
for ever and ever ; he will be our guide even unto 
death." 

1. Beloved Christian friends, God the Saviour is 
ours, by his own election of us to be his people. Be- 
fore we were brought into being, we were his. When 
we were dead in trespasses and sins, he loved us, ac- 
cording to the riches of his mercy. When we knew 
him not, perhaps had never thought of him, he called 
us to receive the fulness of his grace. This is the 
great reason for our gratitude and praise to him, that 
he waited for no merit in us ; but from the overflow- 
ing of his own compassion towards us, he had mercy 
because he would have mercy. How often does the 
Apostle Paul make this the subject of thanksgiving 
unto God, in behalf of the believers in the Lord Jesus, 
to whom he wrote ! To the Ephesians he says, 
" Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings 
in heavenly places in Christ; according as he hath 
chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, 
that we should be holy and without blame before him 
in love." To the Thessalonians he says, " We give 
thanks to God always for you all, making mention of 
you in our prayers ; remembering without ceasing, 
your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience 
of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God, 
and our Father; knowing, brethren beloved, your 
election of God." This is the fundamental ground 
of the property which God has in his people, and 



28 god's message to Israel. [ser. ii. 

which they have in him. By his own unbounded 
love, he has thus become our God ; and we feel con- 
strained to give him all the glory, for that grace which 
has saved us from everlasting ruin, and given unto 
us, exceeding great and precious promises in Jesus 
Christ, without any reference to merit, or worthiness 
in ourselves. 

2. God the Saviour is ours, by a voluntary dona- 
tion of himself for us. When we were without 
strength, or hope, in due time, Christ died for the 
ungodly. Sin against God had placed the whole 
race of man under a curse. The wrath of God was 
revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness 
of men. Without the shedding of blood there was 
no remission. Either the sinner or a substitute must 
die, to preserve the majesty of God unstained, and 
to reconcile the justice of God to the pardon of the 
guilty. To make the necessary atonement for sin, 
and to accomplish the perfect righteousness which 
man required, God became man, and opened in him- 
self, a fountain for sin and for uncleanness. Burnt 
offerings and sacrifice for sins, could offer no hope to 
a fallen soul. Then, said God the Son, " Lo, I come, 
to do thy will, O God." From this voluntary, cheer- 
ful submission of himself to be the sinner's propitia- 
tion, as early as the existence of human want, he is 
called, " the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
world." By this donation of himself, he purchased 
for himself a peculiar people, who shall glorify him 
on the earth, and become partakers of his glory in 
heaven. They were the subjects of the promise to 
him, in the great covenant of redemption, which is 
the whole foundation of human hope. In them he 



SER. II.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 29 

was to see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied. 
By their knowledge of himself, he was to justify them, 
when he should bear their iniquities, and make his 
life an offering for sin. He has thus purchased them, 
with an inestimable price, and they are his people, and 
he is their God. 

3. God the Saviour becomes ours, by our volun- 
tary acceptance of his mercy. The rich and glorious 
privileges of his Gospel are freely offered to the 
enjoyment of all who hear the message which pre- 
sents them. The terms of the divine invitations are 
unlimited, and whosoever will, is invited by the Sa- 
viour, to be partaker of his grace. But vast numbers 
despise the riches of his long suffering, trample under 
their feet God's dear Son, and count the blood of his 
covenant an unholy and worthless thing. There are 
thousands who speak evil of the way of truth ; who 
hate the pure and perfect commands of God ; and who 
live without a desire for conversion, under the domi- 
nion of that carnal mind, which is enmity against God, 
and is not, and will not be, subject to his will. But 
while this is the character of many, there are cer- 
tainly many also, who have received Jesus in their 
hearts, as their hope of glory ; and have rejoiced in 
the acceptance of the loving kindness which he has 
offered them. They have felt their deep necessity 
for such a Saviour. They have been convinced of 
the wretchedness of their natural condition without 
him. They have found themselves to be without 
hope, because they were without God in the world. 
They have been wearied with the hard service in 
which they have been held ; and have sought for re- 
demption and peace in the blood of Jesus, even the 
c 2 



30 god's message to Israel [ser. ii. 

forgiveness of sins. They have thus gratefully re- 
ceived the offer of salvation, which God has been 
pleased to make to them, and to cast themselves 
humbly, and wholly, upon him. By this acceptance 
of the riches of his mercy which are in Christ Jesus, 
God becomes their Saviour and their covenant God. 

4. God the Saviour becomes ours, by the personal 
consecration of ourselves to his service. If we are 
his people, we have come out from this evil world, 
and separated ourselves from its vanities and sins. 
We have named ourselves by the name of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and have bound ourselves in a covenant 
with him, to be his forever, and to depart from all 
iniquity. We are not our own, and we have not 
the right to live unto ourselves. He has sealed us 
with his Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption ; and 
we have promised to live in the remembrance, that 
our time, and talents, and opportunities and power to 
do good, are all the Lord's. We are to feel it as our 
highest privilege, that he is willing to accept our im- 
perfect services, and to look down with compassion 
upon such sinful and unworthy creatures. There has 
been a solemn agreement registered in heaven, be- 
tween every Christian before me, and the Master 
whom they are all bound to serve; an agreement 
voluntarily entered into by themselves ; that they will 
have no other God but him, that every idol which their 
vain hearts may have set up for their homage, shall 
be relinquished and cast away, and that their whole 
affections shall be consecrated unto him, and to his 
glory, forever. This devotion of ourselves to God, 
is recognised in all our approaches to his throne of 
grace, whether in miblic or in private. We come 



SER. II.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 31 

unto him as our covenant God, to whom we have 
made the voluntary donation of ourselves, to be a living 
sacrifice unto him, and whose promises mercifully 
established in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have the 
right therefore to plead before him. We have thus 
avouched the Lord to be our God; and we become 
witnesses against ourselves, if we forsake his service, 
and yield our affections to the enemies of his will. 

This is the fourfold ground of that reciprocal pro- 
perty which subsists between God and his people. 
He is theirs by the free donation of himself to be a 
Saviour and a sacrifice for their souls. They are his 
by his own merciful election of them before the foun- 
dation of the world ; by their thankful acceptance of 
his mercy when it was offered them in the Gospel ; 
and by their solemn devotion of themselves to his 
holy service. By his Holy Spirit, they are united in 
faith unto Christ. And being thus made the mem- 
bers of his body, where he is, there must they be also. 
This is the divine promise to them, " they shall call 
upon my name, and I will hear them ; I will say, it is 
my people, and they shall say, the Lord is my God." 
How glorious is the privilege of this union ! The 
high and lofty One, even the God who ruleth in the 
heavens, is ours. We may faint and be weary ; we 
may be cast down and despondent But God still 
says to us in our lowest depressions, " fear not, thou 
worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel ; I will help thee, 
saith the Lord thy Redeemer, the holy One of Israel. 
Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should 
not have compassion upon the son of her womb? 
Yea, they may forget, yet will not I forget thee." 

Under this character, does God come to his spiritual 



32 god's message to Israel. [ser. ii. 

Israel, whether for their conversion, or for their final 
triumph. He is theirs, and they are his. What force 
does this consideration add to the address of our text, 
"Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel." "What an 
assemblage of motives to holiness, does the Gospel 
present!" said the spiritually-minded Payson, "I am 
a Christian. What then ? I am a redeemed sinner, a 
pardoned rebel ; all through grace, and by the most 
wonderful means which infinite wisdom could devise. 
I am a Christian. What then ? Why I am a temple 
of God, and surely I ought to be pure and holy. I 
am a Christian. What then ? Why I am a child of 
God, and I ought to be filled with filial reverence, 
love, joy, and gratitude. I am a Christian. What 
then ? Why I am a disciple of Christ, and must imi- 
tate him who was meek and lowly in heart, and 
pleased not himself. I am a Christian. What then ? 
Why I am an heir of heaven, and hastening on to the 
abodes of the blessed, to join the full choir of the 
glorified ones, in singing the song of Moses and the 
Lamb; and surely I ought to learn that song on 
earth." 

But while we are remarking upon the character 
under which God will come to his spiritual people, 
we must consider him, not only as theirs, but as their 
God. " Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel." In 
the governments of this world, the more elevated is 
the station of a ruler, the more grand and extensive 
will be the preparations to receive him among his 
subjects. In the intimacies of domestic life, the 
dearer is the character of a friend, the greater joy 
will the anticipation of his arrival produce. The 
message of the text may well lead the children of Sion 



SER. II.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 33 

to be joyful in their King, both from the glorious 
character of the Being whose coming it proclaims, 
and from the intimate relation which he sustains to 
his people. " Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye 
out to meet him." " This is our God, and he will 
save us." He is the strength of our heart, and our 
portion forever. It was he who formed us for him- 
self, and called us into being, that we might glorify his 
name ; who made us in his own image, that we might 
show forth his praise, and be able to enjoy him for- 
ever. It was he who sustained and protected us in 
the early dangers of infancy and youth; who has 
watched over us in every period of our lives; and 
whose goodness and mercy have followed us all our 
days. It is he who hath redeemed us, and purchased 
us by his own blood ; who hath been made sin for us, 
when he knew no sin, that we might be made the 
righteousness of God in him ; who hath called us to 
a knowledge and enjoyment of his grace, and by his 
Spirit hath rendered us meet to be partakers of the 
inheritance of the saints in light. He is our sacrifice, 
who hath borne for us the curse of the law ; our High 
Priest, who hath entered into the heavens for us ; our. 
Advocate, who ever liveth to make intercession for 
us ; the Captain of our salvation, who was made per- 
fect through sufferings for our sake; the glorious 
King of saints, under whom are placed in subjection, 
the powers of the world to come, for our everlasting 
benefit. 

This is the God for whom the Israel of promise are 
to be prepared ; the Maker, Redeemer, Husband, un- 
changeable friend, and everlasting portion of his 
people. He is our God, and we are bound to receive 

5 



34 god's message to Israel. [ser. ii. 

and reverence him; our God, and we may surely 
confide in him; our God, and he cannot be over- 
powered ; our God, and he will not forsake us. Tell 
ye the daughter of Sion, thy King cometh unto thee, 
having salvation. Proclaim unto all his waiting 
people, that he is at hand, with an everlasting recom- 
pense ; and let them all be ready to receive him, as 
the messenger of salvation, and the Prince of Peace. 

IV. Having viewed the relation which God sus- 
tains to his people, and the character, under which he 
comes to them, let us now consider what will be the 
results of his coming to them. 

1. His first advent is to their hearts, with the de- 
monstration of the Spirit, and with divine power, and 
its result is, that they are born again, and made new 
creatures in Christ Jesus. The natural condition of 
all men, in regard to God, is the same. Without any 
difference, all have sinned, and come short of the 
glory of God. Every mouth is stopped before him, 
which attempts to plead an excuse for guilt. By 
nature, the children of God were the children of 
wrath, even as others. There is not a saint in 
heaven, nor a new born soul upon the earth, but was 
born, and while in an unconverted state remained, a 
vessel of wrath, fitted to destruction. But to as 
many as received him, to them gave he power, to be- 
come the sons of God, even to as many as believe on 
his name. The hour in which they received Jesus 
Christ as their Lord, was the hour of their new 
birth ; and in that hour did salvation come to their 
souls. The deep convictions of sin which they had 
before felt; the earnest desires which had been 
awakened in their hearts, that some one would lead 



SER. II.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 35 

them into a way of peace ; the solemn determinations 
which they made that they would cast away the sin 
which did so easily beset them, and count every thing 
but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus 
Christ the Lord, were the preparations by which the 
Holy Spirit was leading them, to accept the rich 
mercies of Jesus, and to yield themselves as a willing 
offering unto him. And when the moment came, that 
they were ready to do this, to become the temples of the 
living God, and to choose Jesus as their Saviour, and 
their eternal portion, then he entered into their hearts, 
to dwell there by faith ; and they were converted by 
his grace, reconciled unto God, and made the children 
of God, by faith in Jesus Christ. Then they expe- 
rienced the power of the Gospel. They tasted that 
the Lord was gracious. They enjoyed the testimo- 
nies of his love. They found peace in believing. 
They received the spirit of adoption in their hearts, 
teaching them to cry unto God, Abba, Father. This 
was the day on which they began to live, so far as 
concerned the great purpose for which they were 
formed. And God rejoiced over the workmanship 
of his own hands ; souls which he had created anew, 
after his own image, unto good works, to the honour 
of his name. 

This acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the 
great offices which he exercises for men, is the cha- 
racteristic distinction of the people of God; the grand 
discriminating mark of converted souls. They have 
now put on the Lord Jesus Christ, as the wisdom, 
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption which 
they need ; while all others are just where they were 
by nature, without Christ, far off from God, and 



36 god's message to Israel. [ser. ii. 

strangers to the constraining power of his grace and 
love. But why are there so many, to whose hearts 
the Saviour is yet a stranger ? Why do men drive 
him from their hosoms, and reject all his designs of 
mercy ? What is there repugnant or terrible in the 
spiritual advent of a Saviour like this? He desires 
to come to the heart of every one before me, that 
there may be no longer a stranger or foreigner 
among you, but that ye all may be fellow-citizens 
with the saints, and of the household of God. He 
would come to you as the minister of everlasting sal- 
vation ; to make you, to heaven, and earth, and hell, 
the glorious monuments, of what such a Saviour can 
do for sinners. He commands you to do no great 
thing. He calls for no treasures of gold or frankin- 
cense, or myrrh. He asks only for yourselves to be 
laid at his feet, with all your un worthiness and sins, 
and he will speak the words, by which you shall be 
saved. O, how affecting is the consideration, that it 
is the sinner's will alone, which separates him from 
a pardoning Saviour ! How solemn is the thought, 
that while there are here present, perhaps, those who 
will lie down in hell forever ; there is not one, but 
might find eternal peace in God's dear Son, if he 
would but submit to his holy and merciful dominion. 
This day, nay, this hour, may every sinner before me 
find salvation, if he will but resist the power of Satan, 
and yield himself as a willing servant unto Christ. 
O, my friends, throw away your self-dependence, and 
prepare to meet your God. That will be for you a 
day of joy, on which you find spiritual peace in Jesus 
Christ. It will be a day of security, a day of triumph. 
You will find yourselves in the hands of a Saviour, 



SER. II.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 37 

whose love cannot fail, and under whose feet every 
enemy must be placed in entire and final subjection. 
In sickness and suffering ; in the hour of death, and 
in the day of judgment, you will look back upon this 
birthday of your souls, as the great point of remem- 
brance in your lives. You will sing the praises of 
Almighty God forever, that you were led thus to re- 
ceive the mark of the Lamb, and to follow him with 
thankful confidence, whithersoever he should lead you. 
2. If this radical conversion of heart be the result 
of the first coming of God our Saviour, we are then 
redeemed from captivity, and there will be nothing 
disheartening or terrible in his second coming to 
finish his purposes of love for us. When a recon- 
ciled Father calls us home ; and a beloved Saviour 
says to us, "'make haste, and come, for this day I 
must abide at thy house ;" there should be no feeling 
within us, but unmingled joy. The thankfulness with 
which prophets and righteous men looked forward to 
the first coming of the Lord Jesus upon the earth, 
his people may now feel, in expecting him, the second 
time without sin unto salvation. The valley of the 
shadow of death may be dark without the presence 
of a Saviour ; but for those who follow him, the Lord 
is an everlasting light, and their God their glory. 
Let every true Christian remember that the same 
Lord, who loved them, and gave himself for them, 
will uphold and bless them there. The gates of hell 
shall not prevail against them. God shall make them 
conquerors, and more than conquerors, through him 
that loved them. They may think of him, and trust 
in him, as one for whom they have waited, and be- 
lieving in whom, they have eternal life. For them he 
D 



38 god's message to Israel. [ser. ii. 

comes, that he may make up his jewels ; that he may- 
write up the number of his people, and give them the 
rest they need, and the inheritance which he has 
provided for them. It will be a day of glory, and 
triumph, and songs of praise, when Jesus, and the 
whole church of the first born whose names are 
written in heaven, shall meet to be separated no more 
forever. Every redeemed soul shall be there. Not 
one poor, trembling saint shall be lost. Of all whom 
the Father hath given him, Jesus shall lose none. 
Saints of all ages, believers of every land, shall be 
seen collected. And while all ascribe the praise and 
honour of their salvation to the Lamb, he shall be 
glorified in his saints, and admired in them that be- 
lieve. When a Christian dies, he is born anew to 
glory. And far rather should we praise God, that he 
is safe, and a conqueror, than lament over his re- 
mains, or speak mournfully of his departure. Better 
is this day of his death than the day of his birth. Now, 
he is crowned, exalted, and happy, beyond the reach 
of suffering or fear. And we are to give glory to 
God, that he has taken one more wanderer unto him- 
self, and secured him eternally in his fold. Soon this 
hour will come for us, and if we are now in Christ, 
we shall then be with him. O, happy will be that 
moment of return to God, when we shall be acknow- 
ledged as the friends of Jesus, and stand forth with 
him before the universe, crowned with his free salva- 
tion ! And welcome may be disease, and languishing, 
and death, which shall bring our Emanuel a second 
time for our deliverance, and transfer us under his 
guidance to an eternal home with him. 



SERMON III. 



GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 



Amos iv. 12. — Prepare to meet thy God, Israel, 

I have twice spoken upon this text, as God's mes- 
sage to the spiritual Israel. I come now to apply it 
with seriousness and affection to another class of my 
hearers, of whom I shall speak under the title of the 
idolatrous Israel. After what you have heard 
from me upon this subject, it cannot be necessary for 
me now to say, that under these two appellations, I 
have designed to represent, the converted and the un- 
converted portions of my hearers ; the religious and 
the irreligious classes of men, who are now be- 
fore me. 

To the one class, the message of the text, as al- 
ready considered, is a joyful annunciation ; a call for 
thankful preparation for the coming of a triumphant 
Saviour. In view of his approach, they are to lift 
up their heads, to rejoice and be exceeding glad, for 
their redemption draweth nigh. 

To the other class, it is the solemn warning of an 
approaching judgment ; the annunciation of a day of 

39 



40 god's message to Israel. [ser. hi. 

God's own appointment, when the measure of human 
trial shall be finished, and every immortal soul shall 
receive a just recompense of reward ; when he that 
is righteous, shall remain righteous still, and he that is 
unholy shall be unholy still. 

Into these two classes of persons, every congrega- 
tion is divided. But the division is generally a very 
unequal one. There are probably, but a small por- 
tion of the members of any of our public assemblies, 
who can be reasonably addressed, as converted, or 
pious persons. For this reason it is, that the faithful 
exhortations of the pulpit must be generally addressed 
to those, whose attention has yet to be awakened to 
the claims of religion, and whose affections are to be 
drawn to the high and important objects which the 
Gospel presents. True believers in the Lord Jesus, 
the Israel of God, are to be comforted, encouraged, 
and built up in their most holy faith. The exceeding 
great and precious promises of the Gospel belong to 
them ; and they are to be applied to them without 
fear. But we cannot cry peace to the ungodly, when 
there is no peace. And there is no peace to the 
wicked, saith our God. The same fidelity which will 
lead us, on the one side, to speak comfortably to the 
people of God, will compel us on the other, to cry 
aloud, and spare not, to lift up our voice like a trum- 
pet, in proclaiming to unbelieving men, their dangers 
and their sins. 

We are not the enemies of men, because we tell 
them the truth. Did we hate them indeed, we should 
leave them to become the victims of their own in- 
fatuation ; we should combine with Satan, in persuad- 
ing them to hold on upon the belief, that they are 



SER. III.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 41 

safe, and may be happy as they are ; we should soothe 
them in their fears ; we should lull them into still 
deeper slumbers. We know that this would infallibly 
accomplish their eternal ruin. We cannot conceal 
from ourselves the painful fact, that the far greater 
portion of those who listen to us, from week to week, 
are in a state of alienation from God, and under the 
curse of his broken law ; that they are without his 
love in their' hearts, and enemies to his holy will. 
They are not our personal foes. In some cases, they 
are our dearest friends, bone of our bone, and flesh 
of our flesh ; and God is our record, how greatly we 
long after them all, in the bowels of Jesus Christ. 
We love them as our own souls. And loving them 
thus, we would arouse them from their sleep; we 
would convince them of their dangers ; we would draw 
them, the Lord being merciful unto them, to a city of 
refuge, a place of eternal safety. To accomplish this 
most important of all objects, we warn them with all 
long-suffering, we preach to them with all boldness, 
we keep back nothing that is profitable unto them, 
hoping through the boundless mercy of Almighty God, 
that we may be made the instruments of saving some. 

To this class of my hearers, I come this day, with 
another serious warning. I have no message of con- 
solation for unconverted sinners, no words of peace, 
unless the invitations of the Gospel prove effectual, 
and their hearts are brought home in a spiritual con- 
version unto Jesus Christ the Lord. The address of 
the text, is to them, a solemn admonition. — " Prepare 
to meet thy God, O Israel." 

The prophet Amos ministered to the ten tribes of 
Israel, during the reign of the second Jeroboam ; of 
d 2 6 



42 god's message to Israel. [ser. hi. 

whom it is said, that " he did that which was evil in 
the sight of the Lord, and departed not from all the 
sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel 
to sin." Under his idolatrous government, this 
prophet was sent with a heavy burden from the Lord, 
of warning and condemnation. The exhortation of 
the text urges them to take heed of the Lord's de- 
signed dealings among them. In our present appli- 
cation of it, the circumstances of the history which 
are connected with it may be employed, as illustrating 
the characters of the individuals, to whom the address 
is to be made. These circumstances will present 
three different aspects of the persons to whom I 
now refer. 

I. It was addressed to those whose service and 
affections had been voluntarily withdrawn from the 
living God, and devoted to objects prohibited by 
him. The Israelites had openly established idola- 
trous worship in their land ; and had secretly with- 
drawn their hearts from God, even while professing 
outwardly to serve him. When the first Jeroboam 
was made king of Israel, lest the hearts of his sub- 
jects should be drawn back to the successors of 
David, by assembling for divine worship at Jerusalem 
according to the Lord's command, he set up two 
golden calves, the one at Dan, and the other at Bethel, 
the northern and southern extremities of his newly 
acquired kingdom, and commanded all his subjects to 
worship before them. The idolatry which he thus 
established, was continued under all his successors, 
of each of whom it is said, " he departed not from 
the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made 
Israel to sin." Besides this open idolatry, their 



SER. III.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 43 

affections had been devoted to idols, even when they 
had professed to offer sacrifices unto the Lord ; for 
he denies that even those sacrifices had been offered 
at all unto him. He declares, that he hated, he de- 
spised their feast days, and though they offered burnt- 
offerings, and meat-offerings, he would not accept 
them. To this nation thus marked by their idolatry, 
the prophet Amos was sent. His message to them 
was solemn and faithful. " Seek ye the Lord, and 
ye shall live. Hate the evil, love the good, and esta- 
blish judgment in the gate ; and it may be, the Lord 
God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of 
Jacob. Prepare to meet thy God ; for lo, he that 
formed the mountains and declareth unto man what is 
his thought, and treadeth upon the high places of the 
earth, the Lord, the God of hosts is his name." 

In applying from this illustration, the term idola- 
trous to a portion of my hearers, I shall undoubtedly 
be considered by some as harsh and unreasonable. 
But every heart before me has its peculiar object of 
affection and worship. All whose hearts have not 
been surrendered in a new creation, to the will and 
service of God, are devoted to some opposing service, 
and are fixing their affections upon fading and un- 
worthy objects. Every unconverted man is an idola- 
ter. The covetousness of the world is idolatry. 
" Many walk," says St. Paul, " of whom I have told 
you often, and now tell you, even weeping, that they 
are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose god is 
their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who 
mind earthly things." The proud, and vain, and en- 
vious, are all idolaters. All who are not with Christ 



44 god's message to Israel. [ser. hi. 

are against him. The Scripture places before us but 
one possible alternative, in the consecration of our 
hearts and affections; the service of God, and the 
service of Mammon ; the love of the Father, and the 
love of the world. This alternative divides the 
world. All who have not been taught to serve Al- 
mighty God, in the spiritual obedience of the Gospel, 
and are not known to him as the subjects of a new 
creation, are walking in the ways of their own hearts, 
and are idolaters. 

Such as these, I address in the solemn message of 
the text, who like the Israelites have voluntarily with- 
drawn their affections from the Creator, and have 
bestowed them upon the creature. The occupations, 
the cares, the connexions, the pleasures of this world, 
are ruling in the hearts of many who have been re- 
peatedly called to the privileges of the Gospel, and 
have voluntarily refused to come. Their consciences 
bear witness, that the service of sin is not an involun- 
tary service ; that this they have chosen, rather than 
a hearty subjection to an holy God. The man who 
is destitute of spiritual religion, is remaining so by 
his own choice. There is no necessity imposed upon 
him to forsake God, and to refuse him the devotion 
of the powers which he hath formed. The affec- 
tionate and open invitations of the Gospel, place all 
beyond excuse, who continue in sin, while grace 
abounds. My friends, it is this voluntary idolatry of 
your hearts, which forms the guiltiness of your un- 
converted state. Christ and Satan, this world and 
the world to come, are placed before you, as the ob- 
jects of your own selection. You are personally 



SER. III.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 45 

called upon to make your determination in this serious 
alternative; and this determination you do indivi- 
dually and finally make for yourselves. 

Here is one who has made his deliberate choice. 
He has cast from him the cords of divine authority. 
He has recorded his resolution not to submit to the 
King of saints. He has yielded his understanding 
to the temptations of infidelity. He is desirous to 
think, and ready to say, " there is no God. Who is 
the Almighty that I should serve him? and what 
profit shall I have if I pray unto him?" The Scrip- 
tures seem to him to have no marks of authority or 
truth. The character of the Saviour appears clothed 
in his view, with no reverence or majesty. He fancies 
that there is an absurdity in the habitual declarations 
of the preacher of Christ. He thinks himself safe 
and wise, in having thrown away what he considers 
the bonds of early superstition, and in refusing to 
yield to the professed revelation of the Most High. 

Here is another, who has clothed himself in the 
dignity of total indifference upon this important sub- 
ject. He has found such differences of opinion among 
professing Christians, upon the various topics of reli- 
gious faith, that he will not suffer himself to interfere 
at all in the matter. When all men who profess to 
have found the truth, are perfectly united in their 
views of truth, he will stop to consider its claims. 
But until that time shall come, he claims the liberty 
of despising altogether, a religion which is the subject 
of so much contention. The religion of nature, and 
the morality of his own attainment, are enough for 
him. He has no fear, that God will cast him off*, al- 
though God is not in all his thoughts. He has never 



46 god's message to Israel. [ser. hi. 

doubted his personal security, although he has never 
bestowed a single serious thought upon the subject. 

Here is a third, who is really so busy that he has 
no time to think of God, or of his own soul. He 
imagines that he would gladly do it, if he had the 
opportunity. But when he rises up early in the 
morning, some engagement presses upon his time. 
Hour after hour, some one is waiting for him, who 
cannot be put off. Thus days pass away with him ; 
and God is obliged still to wait upon him without 
effect His unconverted soul is still without Christ 
He has no peace with God. He has no comfort of 
future hope. All because he has no time to think of 
any thing, but the business which presses him around. 
He will not allow that he despises the solemn claims 
of the religion of the Son of God. But it is quite 
evident, that he deems them of less importance, than 
the claims of worldly business and gain, because they 
are always required to give way to these. He has not 
seriously determined, that he will never yield to the 
Saviour's demands. Perhaps, he really intends the 
exact opposite of this. But he has now lived so long 
without finding time for that attention to religion, 
which is required of him, that the probability is now 
very small, that the hour of conversion will ever come 
to him. 

Here is a female hearer who trifles too much to 
think of her soul. She might as well have been made 
without an immortal nature, for she has never re- 
garded its interests, or its value. She is dead while 
she lives. She is without seriousness, without fear, 
without any concern for the realities of an eternal 
world. She forgets how soon she will lie down in 



SER. III. GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 47 

the grave, where the worms shall be spread under her, 
and the worms shall cover her ; how soon she must 
stand before a judgment seat, to give account for her- 
self, of an abused and wasted life ; and how little she 
has in her own character and recollection, to comfort 
her in either of these prospects. 

Here are four classes of persons, and they might 
be enlarged in their enumeration to many more, who 
have voluntarily withdrawn their affections from the 
God who made them, and have fixed them upon ob- 
jects opposed to him, and prohibited by him. The 
fundamental principle of all these characters is the 
same. It is the carelessness of a carnal mind, and 
the hardness of an unconverted heart. If they were 
but made to feel the power and danger of their sins; the 
infidelity, and indifference, and occupation, and levity, 
which severally characterize them, would all give place 
to that one, anxious, important question, " what shall 
I do to be saved?" Outward differences in their cha- 
racters are but of small consequence. The one great 
question to be settled for them all, is whether their 
hearts shall be submitted to the spiritual dominion of 
the Redeemer. They do not like to retain God in 
their knowledge. They cannot walk together with 
him, for they are not agreed. The principle of indwell- 
ing, dominant sin, manifests itself in their different 
characters, under different aspects, precisely as the 
waters of one grand ocean receive their different 
names as they wash upon the shores of different 
lands. But it is the same principle of sin in all. It 
is the carnal mind, which is enmity against God, and 
which results in death. 

These persons are called idolatrous, for they have 



48 god's message to Israel. [ser. hi. 

set up their idols in every place. They have forsaken 
God, the fountain of living waters, and have hewed 
them out cisterns, broken cisterns, which can hold no 
water. I call them voluntarily idolatrous, for they 
have made their present course the object of their 
own choice ; and there is no other reason than their 
own choice, which can account for their remaining in 
an unconverted state. They might come to Jesus, 
and find everlasting acceptance and peace with him, 
if they could be persuaded to prefer the reproach of 
Christ to the pleasures of sin, which are but for a 
season. To such as these, the solemn message of the 
text comes with power. Prepare to meet a God in 
vengeance, whom you have rejected in mercy. Pre- 
pare to meet a God on the throne of judgment, whom 
you have neglected in his atonement upon the cross. 
Prepare to meet a God exalted with unlimited power, 
whom you have forsaken when he was humbled in 
love. This personal, chosen, determined rejection of 
the mercies of the Gospel, this voluntary alienation 
from God, this continuance in an unconverted state 
without necessity, marks the first distinction of those 
to whom the message of the text is now addressed. 

II. The exhortation of this text was addressed to 
those who had experienced many chastising visita- 
tions from Almighty God, without effect. Under the 
peculiar government by which God controlled the 
Israelites, he visited their transgressions with imme- 
diate temporal punishments. Thus had he done in 
the time of Amos. But it had been without any good 
effect. Punishment had not led them from their 
idolatry, nor brought them to repentance. " I gave 
you," says the Lord, " cleanness of teeth in all your 



SEIt. III.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 49 

cities, and want of bread in all your places ; yet ye 
have not returned unto me, saith the Lord. And 
also I have withholden the rain from you, when there 
were yet three months to the harvest ; and I caused 
it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain 
upon another city ; one piece was rained upon, and 
the piece whereupon it rained not, withered. So two 
or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water, 
but they were not satisfied ; yet ye have not returned 
unto me, saith the Lord. I have smitten you with 
blasting and mildew; when your gardens, and your 
vineyards, and your fig trees, and your olive trees, 
increased, the palmer worm devoured them; yet ye 
have not returned unto me, saith the Lord. I have 
sent unto you the pestilence after the manner of 
Egypt; your young men have I slain with the sword, 
and I have taken away your horses ; and I have made 
the stink of your camps to come up into your nostrils; 
yet ye have not returned unto me, saith the Lord." 
This is the catalogue of judgments, which God had 
unavailingly sent upon them. They might have 
seemed to be sufficient to have humbled and cor- 
rected them. Yet as they are here recited by the 
Lord who had sent them, the same mournful conclu- 
sion follows upon the recollection of each ; " yet ye 
have not returned unto me, saith the Lord." 

How plainly descriptive is this statement, of some to 
whom I am now addressing the same solemn message ! 
Precisely such has been the growth of carelessness 
and ingratitude with them, under the corrective visi- 
tations of divine Providence. He has stricken them, 
but they have not been made to feel their spiritual 
sickness. He has beaten them, and they heeded it 
E 7 



50 god's message to Israel. [ser. hi. 

not. They have revolted more and more. The 
whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. 
How various are the charges of this description, 
which he must make individually against you I I laid 
you upon a bed of sickness, says God to one of you, 
yet you have not returned unto me. You promised 
to serve me upon the return of health. Your health 
has been restored, and you have not served me. I 
sent the angel of death into your family, he says to 
another, and the affliction has produced no submis- 
sion. While the wound was fresh and open, your 
spirit seemed for a little while humbled. But it has 
been closed and forgotten, and you have not returned 
unto me. I have reduced you to poverty, he says to 
a third, and still your spirit is rebellious and proud. 
I have brought many of you to the edge of another 
world ; I have awakened you with the fearful pros- 
pect of eternal judgment ; I have showed to you that 
it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living 
God ; and yet you have not returned unto me. You 
still remain stout-hearted, and heedless, and bold, in 
the enmity of your heart against me. 

Such instances are before me in great numbers; 
souls that have been hardened in the fires of Provi- 
dence ; that have grown callous and impenetrable in 
a state of sin, under all the instruments which have 
been employed to arouse them to think of the things 
which belong to their peace; that have showed to 
what an extent, the creatures of God, poor and insig- 
nificant as they are, may resist his will, strive against 
his power, and defeat the operation of his offers of 
mercy. O, how dreadful is the thought, that this re- 
sistance against God may be carried on until, as its 



SER. III.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 51 

necessary result, God shall say of them as he did of 
Pharaoh, " for this cause have I raised thee up, to 
make in thee, my power known," to show that none 
can harden himself against God and prosper ! It is 
a mournful view which these facts present of the cha- 
racter of irreligious men ; that the very dispensations 
which are made the instruments of saving multitudes, 
only serve to ripen them in their sins, and to fill up 
the measure of their condemnation. 

The children of God may praise him for his chastise- 
ments. They may look back upon sickness, and sor- 
row, and want, as the blessed instruments of arousing 
them from their carelessness in sin, of making them 
feel for the necessities of their souls, and of bringing 
them to ask at the feet of Jesus, for a hope of peace. 
Every painful providence dispensed to man, is either 
a blessing or a curse. If it be made the instrument 
of calling home the heart to God, however severe it 
may be, it is an evidence of God's kindness and com- 
passion, and a reason for new gratitude to him. If 
it merely hardens us in a state of sin, it is a punish- 
ment, a portion of that wrath which must be poured 
out upon sinners, throughout eternity. And in pro- 
portion as such dispensations are multiplied in the 
history of irreligious persons, the guiltiness of their 
character is aggravated, and the terror of their pros- 
pects is enlarged. When God has been thus unavail- 
ingly dealing with you, by many different instruments 
of good, the prospect of meeting him in a personal 
account, becomes still the more serious and repulsive. 
And this is the point to which I would now call your 
special attention. 

You have resisted his government, and have made 



52 god's message to Israel. [ser. hi. 

all that he has done for you, of none effect. Your 
own recollections furnish you with many instances, in 
which, under the weight of his hand, you have deter- 
mined to submit to him, and yet you have not done it. 
Had he left you entirely to yourselves, unnoticed, un- 
warned, unawakened, there might have been urged 
something for your excuse. But there is not a habi- 
tation among you, in which God has not made bare 
his arm, for sickness, or sorrow, or cause of lamen- 
tation of some description, showing you, that you 
were objects of his regard, and that he wished you to 
become partakers of his holiness. And yet, how 
many unrenewed, and perhaps, careless souls, does 
every habitation contain ; testifying still, that however 
abundant have been the kind warnings of the provi- 
dence of God, ungrateful men are still able to receive 
them all without effect. To such, as the last remain- 
ing communication from God, the message of the text 
is addressed, " Thus will I do unto thee, therefore 
prepare to meet thy God, O Israel," even God who 
cometh with a recompense ! 

III. The warning of our text was addressed to 
those who had been the peculiar objects of divine for- 
bearance, without repentance. Thus God says to 
them, " I have overthrown some of you, as God over- 
threw Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a fire- 
brand plucked out of the burning ; yet have ye not 
returned unto me, saith the Lord. Therefore, thus 
will I do unto thee, O Israel, and because I will do 
this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel." 
The destruction which had been brought upon others, 
was immediate, and without a remedy. It was like 
that awful destruction which God had brought upon 



SER. III.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 53 

the guilty cities which are here referred to, as an 
"ensample unto those who should after live un- 
godly." Amidst this dreadful judgment upon others 
of the people, the Israelites to whom the prophet 
speaks, were mercifully protected and preserved, " as 
a firebrand plucked out of the burning." But the 
divine forbearance was without effect. They still re- 
mained in a careless state of disobedience to God, 
and had not returned unto him. And now divine 
forbearance was exhausted, and God commanded 
them to be ready to give an account of all that was 
past. 

Thus, my brethren, do many despise the riches of 
his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, not 
willing that the goodness of God should lead them to 
repentance. The Lord is long-suffering unto all. 
He desires not that any should perish, but that all 
should come to repentance. This long-suffering of 
our God is salvation, if it be not rejected and despised. 
In sparing men from year to year, amidst all the pri- 
vileges of revelation, God proves to them, that he 
wishes them to be saved, and to come to the know- 
ledge of the truth. But in how many instances, is 
all this forbearance insufficient to lead men to seek 
after, and to embrace the riches of his love ! Not- 
withstanding all the mercy with which he has endured 
towards them, they remain still idolatrous and uncon- 
verted. It is of his mercies, that they are not con- 
sumed. But these mercies excite no gratitude with 
them. Though he is pleased to postpone the hour 
for the execution of his judgment against them, if 
peradventure, they will be persuaded to return to him, 
they yet stand in his vineyard, as cumberers of the 
e 2 



54 god's message to Israel. [ser. hi. 

ground. The companions of their youth have, per- 
haps, long since passed into a world of recompense. 
The partakers of many of their scenes of folly and 
guilt, have gone to answer for their transgressions. 
The members of their family and household have 
been suddenly cut off, and that without remedy. And 
in many instances they are left, standing almost alone 
in a world of strangers. And yet, wonderful to tell ! 
these children of many providences, these objects of 
much long-suffering, are still unchanged in heart, and 
living without God in the world ! The extent to 
which they have made the forbearance of God with- 
out effect, is indeed distressing. But the amount of 
danger and suffering, which this neglect of God 
gathers for such sinful souls, around the personal ap 
pearance of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, 
to judge the world in righteousness, and to reward 
men according to their works, is far more distressing. 
O, it will be a mournful account which they must 
render unto God, who have turned the grace of God 
into licentiousness, and sinned when grace abounds ; 
who have pressed God under the weight of their 
iniquities, and made him to serve with their sins ! 
But it is the account which is certainly before them, 
and for which sinners must prepare themselves. 
Though they do evil many years, and sentence against 
their evil works be not executed speedily, yet in the 
end, which will soon arrive for them, their iniquity 
shall not go unpunished. 

Under these three aspects, as illustrated by the his- 
tory connected with the text, may their characters be 
considered, to whom we address this message, as to 
the idolatrous Israel. Their guilt is in their volun- 



SER. III.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 55 

tary choice of the paths of sin, amidst all the chas- 
tisements and judgments which they endure, and all 
the forbearance which is exercised towards them. 
Charged with this guilt, they are to be brought into 
account before God, in the day of his appearing. Foi 
this account they are warned to be prepared. Who 
can abide the day of his coming ? and who can stand 
when he appeareth ? When he riseth up, what will 
they say ? When he visiteth, what will they answer 
him? 



SERMON IV. 



GOD S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 



Amos iv. 12. — Prepare to meet thy God, Israel. 

I am engaged in applying this solemn message to 
the unconverted portion of my audience. The 
various aspects of their character, to which the his- 
tory connected with the text directs us, have already 
been made the subjects of consideration. I would 
now direct your notice to the great day itself, of the 
approach of which, the text admonishes them. 

The purposes of Almighty God are ripening fast. 
He that shall come, will come, and will not tarry. It 
is to a settled, determined, inevitable approach of 
God, that the attention of men must be directed. 
His coming as a final Judge cannot be postponed. It 
is not left to us to say when it shall be, or whether it 
shall be at all. But it is left with us to determine 
whether we shall be prepared for its arrival. That 
solemn day may find us altogether wanting in a readi- 
ness for its events. It may find us busied in our 
numerous engagements here, without one thought of 
their result hereafter. It may find us glorying in 

56 



SER. IV.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 57 

earthly and perishable treasures, without any weight 
of incorruptible glory laid up in another world. Or 
it may find us living by faith, watching unto prayer, 
and zealous of good works. Much in reference to 
this all-important alternative rests upon ourselves. 
And while God has given us abundant grace, it is 
that we may improve for our own salvation, the pri- 
vileges we enjoy, and be left entirely without excuse, 
if we are negligent of his love. 

The peculiar characteristics of men as connected 
with this accountability to God, we have considered. 
The only guilt which we charge upon them, and the 
only guilt for which they must answer, is a voluntary 
guilt. It is the consciousness of this voluntary guilt 
which clothes the establishment of a judgment seat 
with such terror, and which will stop the mouths of 
ungodly men, in the great day of the Lord. Then 
the revelation of the wrath of God shall have come, 
and no sinner shall be able to stand. 

In making my present final application of the mes- 
sage of this text to the idolatrous Israel, the subject 
will bring before us some considerations which will 
render that day intolerable to those who have impe- 
nitently done evil, and who must be judged for the 
evil they have done. The accusations which men 
will then make, will rest entirely upon themselves. 
They will see, that God could have done nothing in 
their behalf, which he has not done ; that the clearest 
discoveries of divine love have been neglected ; that 
the most expensive and glorious system of redemption 
has been slighted ; that the highest possible messenger 
of mercy has been despised ; and that the most won- 
derful patience and long-suffering has been exhausted. 

8 



58 god's message to Israel [ser. iv. 

Convinced of all this, their mouths will be stopped 
in the presence of a heart-searching God. No vain 
plea will answer their purpose, and no just plea will 
they be able to urge. The serious alarm with which 
they will be seized, the revelations of the Scriptures 
have already set before us ; and no rational man, I 
think, can avoid the deep impression of reverence and 
fear, as he reads the descriptions which they have re- 
corded. " The heavens departed, as a scroll when it 
is rolled together ; and every mountain and island 
were moved out of their places. And the kings of 
the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and 
the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every 
bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the 
dens, and in the rocks of the mountains; and they 
said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide 
us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, 
and from the wrath of the Lamb ; for the great day 
of his wrath has come, and who shall be able to 
stand ?" To those who have lived and died in care- 
lessness about their souls, that day will be a day of 
sorrow and mourning ; a day in which all their faces 
shall gather blackness ; a day in which tribulation 
and anguish will be the portion of every soul of man 
that has impenitently done evil. 

1. In that day of God's coming, such among you 
will think of the clear and inestimable manifestations 
of divine love which they have neglected. No human 
beings have had the opportunity of being acquainted 
with the character, requisitions, and purposes of God, 
which have been granted unto those who have lived 
under the light of the Gospel revelation. Heathens, 
Mahometans, and Jews; men of all ages, and all 



SER. IV.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 59 

nations, shall rise up in the judgment with the men 
of this generation, and shall condemn them. My 
friends, you stand hefore God, under a weight of re- 
sponsibility which no human beings have ever borne 
before. There is not a conceivable privilege con- 
nected with salvation, which your souls do not enjoy. 
All other discoveries of the love of God are far in- 
ferior to that light of the knowledge of his glory 
which is displayed to you in the face of Jesus Christ 
And of necessity, the guilt of rejecting this wonder- 
ful display of love, is just so much the more increased. 
If he that despised Moses' law, died without mercy, 
under two or three witnesses, of how much sorer 
punishment shall he be thought worthy, who hath 
trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the 
blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, 
an unholy thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit 
of grace? 

All other ages of the Gospel dispensation have 
afforded far inferior opportunities of acquaintance 
with its plans of grace, and of embracing its glorious 
invitations of mercy, to those which you enjoy. Many 
a broken and humbled spirit in the darkness of hea- 
thenism, is feeling after -God, if haply he may find 
him, and vainly trying to satisfy his mind, that the 
Godhead is like unto gold and silver, graven with art, 
and man's device. Many a despondent Jew is anxi- 
ously waiting for that salvation of God, that coming 
of his Messiah, which he imagines to be still a future 
event. And many a worshipper in a decayed and 
corrupted Christian church, is truly longing for that 
acceptance before God, which he falsely supposes 
saints and angels can procure for him ; while the ful- 



60 god's message to Israel. [ser. iv. 

ness of a salvation already accomplished in the infinite 
sufficiency of one glorious Mediator, shines around 
you, as the brightness of the divine glory, inviting 
you to become partakers of the heavenly benefit, and 
to taste of the good word of God, and of the powers 
of the world to come. The pagan, the Jew, and the 
darkened member of the professed Christian church, 
will appear against you, before the throne of God. 
Many of you think little of these discoveries of 
divine love and compassion now. But in the day of 
God's coming they will arise before you, as fearful 
aggravations of your guilt. Every faithful exhibition 
of the Gospel which has been made to your souls; 
every affectionate persuasion which you have heard 
to lead you to Christ; the tender and earnest in- 
treaties which almost persuaded you to become the 
disciples of the Lord Jesus; the moving appeals which 
have so often melted you into unavailing tears ; the 
startling admonitions which have compelled you to 
stop and question with yourselves, all these will 
crowd before your recollection in that day, as so 
many reasons for inevitable and just condemnation. 
While you allow all these privileges to pass by you 
now without profit, you are laying up sorrow against 
the last days. The negligence of them is exceeding 
guilt. The recollection of them then, will show you 
that you have been treasuring up wrath against the 
day of wrath, and of the revelation of the righteous 
anger of God. 

2. You will think in that day of the laborious and 
expensive system which was devised and executed for 
your redemption. Angels will seem to have no theme 
of praise compared with the ransomed members of 



SER. IV.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 61 

the human family ; and fallen spirits from among their 
number, no heinousness of guilt, when viewed in con- 
trast with the sinfulness of self-destroyed man. The 
Lord Jesus will then be manifested in unlimited glory 
and exaltation. All the woes which he sustained in 
his humiliation for man, and the condescension and 
pity which he exhibited in the days of his flesh, will 
be remembered, as enhancing the dignity of that eleva- 
tion which he will then display. The love which he 
felt for men before the foundation of the world, the 
kindness with which he watched over their interests 
from the hour of their creation, the cheerfulness with 
which he gave up the glory which he had before the 
world was, that he might be made in all respects a 
proper substitute for them, will then appear as aggra- 
vations of their ingratitude and guilt, who have cru- 
cified him afresh, and put him to an open shame. 
Love and suffering beyond the power of man to un- 
derstand, have united to effect the redemption of sin- 
ners. And yet in a vast multitude of instances, the 
labour and the sorrow have been wholly in vain, in 
their efforts to lead guilty men to safety. But this 
cruel ingratitude of men cannot go unpunished. It 
will add fierceness to the just anger of God, and ex- 
ceeding pain to the unavoidable consciousness of the 
sinner's soul. The neglect of less mercy would have 
called for the infliction of a less condemnation. But 
there is not here one heedless sinner, who has not 
with perverse determination rejected the unspeakable 
compassion of a crucified Redeemer, and rendered 
unavailing a system of deliverance, upon which the 
hosts of heaven look down with unceasing astonish- 
ment. O, unconverted hearers of the Gospel, your 



62 god's message to Israel [ser. iv 

sins are crimsoned with the despised blood of Jesus ; 
and that blood testifies against you before the judg 
ment seat of Almighty God. It has a voice to pierce 
the skies ; and it calls for a retribution still the more 
fearful and heavy, upon those who have declared in 
their rejection of its saving power, that they counted 
it an unholy and worthless thing. The immoralities 
of men will be forgotten. The violated law will 
cease to accuse. Every other charge and witness 
will be silenced, in view of that fearful guilt, which 
is involved in your rejection of the Son of God, and 
your compelling of him to die in vain. 

3. The recompense of that dreadful day of God's 
coming will be farther aggravated, by a clear view of 
the dignity of that holy and merciful Being, who has 
been thus despised. Patriarchs and prophets, apos- 
tles and martyrs, are but of small account, when the 
character of that messenger who was sent last of all 
to men, is made the subject of consideration. Angels 
bow around his throne of inaccessible light, and ac- 
knowledge him, the blessed and only Potentate, the 
Lord of lords, and King of kings. Redeemed saints 
cast their crowns before his feet, in the united decla- 
ration, that he is worthy to receive all riches, and 
honour, and glory, and blessing. But by men on 
earth, by many of you, my friends, he is treated with 
contumely and neglect. When his ministers are de- 
spised, or his word is rejected, it is his own dignity 
which is the real object of man's contempt. These 
instruments of his, are in themselves, of but very 
small account. The real question before your hearts, 
involves his personal authority, and an acceptance of 
his personal offers of grace. Amidst all your hesita- 



SER. IV.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 63 

tion to yield to him, and to believe in him, he forbears 
with you now. He conceals amidst clouds and dark- 
ness, the justice and judgment which form the habi- 
tation of his throne. But in that great day of his 
coming, he will say, "those mine enemies, which 
would not that I should reign over them, bring 
them hither, and slay them before me." This is an 
inevitable result. The dignity of his own person 
affixes the measure of guilt to the conduct of those 
who have thus despised him. The contempt of an 
inferior being would be of less consequence. But 
while he is revealed as the Infinite and Almighty Sa- 
viour of men, transgressions against him rise up to a 
measure of guilt, which demands a punishment totally 
inconceivable to us in its degree. 

4. Beyond all these, you will reflect in that great 
day of God's coming, upon his long-continued for- 
bearance, which has been abused and exhausted, by 
your perverseness in sin. How clearly will all the 
merciful dispensations of his providence be set before 
you ! Every favour which you have received, every 
joy which has crowned your days, will press upon 
your recollection. " Many years did God surround 
me with his goodness;" will your hearts exclaim, "his 
candle shined upon my habitation ; I had daily new 
proofs of his merciful kindness towards me ; often, 
when my sins had provoked his anger to arise, and 
he was justly excited to cut me off from the earth, he 
has still endured with me, and has spared me still, as 
a witness of his love ; and notwithstanding all his 
long-suffering, I lived and died in rebellion against 
him." You will reflect upon the fearful fact, that all 
this goodness towards you, has been in vain ; that it 



64 god's message to Israel. [ser. iv. 

has been to no purpose, that he has prospered and 
blessed you. He wooed you to embrace his love 
without effect. He intreated you to become partakers 
of his holiness in vain. Even unto grey hairs, he has 
waited upon some of you, to see whether amidst all 
his long-continued goodness, you would turn unto him 
and live. But all his kindness has been without ad- 
vantage to you. In his great day, all these abused 
mercies will be charged upon you, with undeniable 
truth. Your consciences will own the justice of 
every charge. And O, how mournful will it be, to be 
banished from the holy presence of God, to be made 
the eternal companion of lost and despairing spirits, 
to lie down amidst unchanging sorrows, to feel that 
you are lost without recovery, and without hope, 
simply because you have rejected the blessings which 
were freely offered you, and have despised a Re- 
deemer, who was able and willing to have saved you 
to the uttermost ! Nothing will tend to make your 
condemnation so intolerable, as this indelible convic- 
tion, that it was unnecessary, and might have been 
avoided. You will see, that instead of lamenting 
your miserable portion forever, you might have been 
praising God in the habitation of his holiness ; instead 
of being bruised forever under the feet of Satan, you 
might have been sitting eternally at the feet of Jesus, 
and following him gladly whithersoever he went. 
This conviction will make a worm that never dies ; 
a sorrow which is perpetual ; a wound for which there 
is no remedy. " Depart from me, ye cursed," will 
Jesus say, "into everlasting fire, prepared for the 
devil and his angels. I know you not. I was a 
stranger, ye took me not in. This is your condem- 



SER. IV.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 65 

nation, that light, even the light of the glorious Gos- 
pel of Christ, has come into the world, and ye have 
loved darkness rather than light, because your deeds 
were evil." God will appear to you still infinitely glo- 
rious, though he condemns you. No censure will 
affix itself to him. No charge can be made of want 
of mercy. You will see, that all which could be 
done, has been done ; and that the only reason which 
can account for your destruction, amidst such forbear- 
ance, is the perverseness of your own will. 

These are some of the considerations which are 
calculated to make the judgment of the day of God's 
coming, entirely intolerable to those who have refused 
to love and obey God, or to embrace the call of mercy 
which has been given them in the Gospel, according 
to his promise. 

And now, in the view of this solemn and alarming 
day of the coming of our God, I intreat you, my 
friends, to look at the character of your own lives, 
and see if you are prepared to meet your God. I 
have before me many upright, and kind, and excellent 
persons in the intercourse of this world, whose cha- 
racters are in many respects, just objects of esteem 
and love. But they are living without any principle 
of deep, spiritual piety ; without the reconciliation of 
their hearts to God ; and without any hope depending 
upon his favour. I would not class such valuable 
members of human society, altogether with the out 
cast profligates who roam the streets. They have 
their reward in the uniform respect of mankind. 
But can I comfort them with any prospect of blessed- 
ness hereafter ? Can I tell them they are safe, when 
I am perfectly convinced that they are not safe ? 

F 2 9 



66 god's message to Israel. [ser. iv. 

They will acknowledge themselves to be without a 
renewed heart. They will confess that they have 
never been brought to make the surrender of their 
affections, and their lives, to Christ. And yet it is 
upon this single point, that all the promises of a 
future life are rested. " Except ye be converted, ye 
cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." " Except 
a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of 
God." There is no hope of future blessedness 
offered to man, but in connexion with this plain and 
indispensable point. To such of my hearers would I 
address the question, with the faithful spirit of kind- 
ness, " are you prepared to meet your God?" Could 
you stand this day before the Judge of all the earth, 
and appeal in the assurance of faith to himself, and 
say, " thou wast made sin for me, when thou knewest 
no sin, that I might be made the righteousness of God 
in thee ; thou wast offered to me in the gracious pro- 
visions of the Gospel, and I gladly received thee to 
my heart, and put thee on as wisdom, righteousness, 
sanctification, and redemption for my soul." Could 
you thus, with humble confidence claim the fulfilment 
of his promise unto you ? Could you look upon the 
face of Jesus, as a friend, for whom you have counted 
every thing else but loss, and say, " Lord, thou 
knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee ; 
Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief?" If you 
have no such connexion with the Redeemer of sin- 
ners, then how are you prepared to meet your God? 
You would be rejected by him. You would be cast 
away from his presence. The kindness for which 
men love you ; the integrity and honourable character 
for which they respect you, have not been acquired or 



SER. IV.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 67 

cultivated, in reference to him, and can challenge no 
acceptance at his hand. This is the outward appear- 
ance upon which men look. God asks for the devo- 
tion of the heart. You need an inward, abiding prin- 
ciple, of love to God, of delight in his character, of 
submission to his will, of joy in his perfections, shed 
abroad in your hearts by the Holy Ghost. It is this 
alone, which will enable you to assure your hearts 
before him, and give you boldness in his presence. 
Without this spiritual devotion of the heart, all other 
attainments will be of no avail. Your souls, still un- 
converted and guilty, will be lost forever. 

You think it hard, that there should be no perma- 
nent discrimination made between your characters, 
and the abandoned portion of mankind. You deem 
it harsh and cruel, that the flames of hell should be 
threatened, to those so educated, and so restrained, 
and so respected as you have been. But when your 
consciences acknowledge that you are not prepared 
for the presence of God, and cannot, therefore, expect 
to partake of the rest prepared for his people, what 
is the alternative ? Is there neutral ground between 
heaven and hell ? " Know ye not that the unright- 
eous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?" that 
the servant who did not his lord's will, had his por- 
tion appointed him with unbelievers? What then 
shall I say to you in this dilemma ? Shall I tell you 
that you are righteous, acceptable to God, and there- 
fore will be saved as you are? Your own hearts 
would contradict me in every assertion, for you are 
convinced that you are neither. Shall I tell you that 
you are unrighteous, without holiness, and therefore, 
cannot see the Lord, or inherit his kingdom? Here 



68 god's message to Israel. [ser. iv. 

your feelings revolt, and you think that some better 
place than hell, might have been provided for persons 
of your description. My friends, God has provided 
some better place, which he offers freely to your pos- 
session and enjoyment, if you will have it. But he 
offers it, as he must offer it, in his own way, and upon 
his own terms. And if you would attain his promises, 
you must enter in by the door which he has opened. 

Now it is not your outward morality, or immorality, 
which affects this question. It is your simple rejec- 
tion of salvation when it is freely offered to you, 
which rejection leaves you in your own condition, to 
perish. God proposes to save you, and you refuse. 
He intreats you to be wise; and you refuse still. 
"What then is to be done ? The alternative is, that 
you are lost. You cannot escape, if you neglect so 
great salvation. You take a mendicant from the 
street, and bring him to your house, and make him 
your son ; he is ungrateful and disobedient ; you still 
forbear with him ; he leaves you with contempt ; you 
go for him, and bring him back ; he pursues again the 
same course ; this round of kindness and ingratitude 
is gone through again and again. At last, wearied 
with his perverseness, you leave him to his own 
course, and try to forget him. Would others be most 
likely to speak of you, and would you be most likely 
to think of yourself, as unjust in leaving one who had 
rejected all your kindness, or as forbearing and liberal 
in doing so much for one, for whom you were under 
no obligation to do any thing ? And would it be your 
cruelty, or his perverseness, which must be alleged 
as the proper ground of responsibility, for his final 
poverty and sufferings ? Transfer this illustration to 



SER. IV.] GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 69 

yourselves, and you are condemned out of your own 
mouth. God requires from you a certain well-defined 
submission, as a preparation for the day of his coming. 
He gives you the ability to be prepared, according to 
his will. But rejecting his grace, as offered in Jesus 
Christ, he can offer you no other way of deliverance. 
In the strong expression of the poet, 

" You read your sentence at the flames of hell ;" 

or in the stronger language of the Scripture, "he 
that believeth not shall be damned." " The wicked 
shall be turned into hell, and all the people that forget 
God." 

Let me then, earnestly press upon your notice, this 
message upon which we have dwelt so long. — " Pre- 
pare to meet thy God, O Israel." Whatever be the 
outward habits of your lives, whatever be the opinions 
which men entertain of your characters, without the 
power of godliness in your souls renewed by the Holy 
Ghost, you are weighed in the balance, and are found 
wanting. Acquire then, this spirit of true religion. 
Awake to the importance of your future prospects. 
Consider the value of your eternal interests. Esteem 
it no weakness to acknowledge that you have precious 
souls which must be saved, and that every thing else 
is for you of small importance, when compared with 
them. If ardent, spiritual religion be enthusiasm, 
fanaticism, may God be pleased to send such fanati- 
cism abundantly into his church ! If it be rude and 
vulgar, to call upon men as helpless, miserable, ruined 
sinners, to flee from the wrath to come, to turn unto 
God and live, may God grant such a vulgar spirit to 
all who profess to be his ministers. We are not of 



70 god's message to Israel. [ser. iv. 

those who deem it shocking to mention hell to ears 
polite. Beloved, the solemn question is before you, 
and must be answered by you, " who shall dwell with 
the devouring fire ? "Who shall dwell with the ever- 
lasting burnings ?" Every soul here present that is 
not bound to Jesus Christ by a living, lasting faith, is 
without hope, under the wrath of God, condemned 
already, and cannot escape the damnation of hell. 
Turn unto him, and be ye saved. Acquaint your- 
selves with him, and be at peace. You cannot stand 
before God, unwashed in the blood of the Lamb, un- 
renewed by the power of the Spirit. Your weight 
of guilt will sink you into eternal condemnation. O, 
then, I beseech you, prepare, by embracing the hope 
which Jesus offers you, to meet your God, and to re- 
ceive that recompense of reward which he brings to 
those who wait for him. 



SERMON V. 



THE NEW CREATURE. 



2 Corinthians^. 17. — Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a 
new creature ,• old things are passed away ,• behold, all things are 
become new. 



The Apostle lays this down, not as a transitory 
precept, but as a rule of universal application, and 
which is to be made the standard of genuine Chris 
tianity, to the end of the world. 

To be in Christ, is to be united unto him by the 
power of his Holy Spirit, in a living, active faith. It 
is to be connected with him as the branch is con- 
nected with the vine, or as the members of a living 
body are joined to their head. It is to be made, in 
this uninterrupted communication, a partaker of his 
fulness, and to receive from him grace for grace. To 
be in Christ, is to be a Christian, not in name only, 
but in deed and in truth. It is to have Jesus Christ 
dwelling in our hearts by faith, as our hope of glory ; 
and to abide with love and confidence in him, as the 
only source of happiness or peace. To be in Christ, 
is to be delivered from all condemnation and fear. 
" There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ 

71 



12 THE NEW CREATURE. [SER. V. 

Jesus." It is to be secure under his protection, safe 
in his righteousness, and able to answer and con- 
found every tongue that riseth in judgment against 
the soul. " This is the heritage of the servants of 
the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the 
Lord of hosts." To be in Christ, is to be in the en- 
joyment of every blessing, and in the possession of 
every privilege and joy. " All things are yours, and 
ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." In this rela- 
tive gradation, the omnipotence of Jehovah is secured 
to the weakest believer in the Lord Jesus, because he 
is Christ's. All things work together for his good 
There cannot be a conceivable comfort which will 
not arise to the man who is in Christ, from this con- 
nexion, while all power in heaven and on earth, is 
given unto him, and he gives his heavenly blessings 
to whomsoever he will. To be in Christ, implies 
that we have come unto him, from our native rebel- 
lion; that we have yielded to his authority, chosen 
his salvation, are confiding in his atonement and 
righteousness, and submitting ourselves completely 
and forever to his will. The man who is in Christ, 
has been led to his feet, in the voluntary and thankful 
conversion of his heart, with a contrite and believing 
spirit, and has found in the acceptance of his redemp- 
tion, peace and blessedness. He has been brought 
from darkness into light, and from the power of Satan 
unto God, and is walking in the fear of God, and in 
the comfort of the Holy Ghost, in a new, and holy, 
and obedient life. 

Such are the privileges of being in Christ. If any 
man then, our text declares, would be united to Christ 
in a living faith ; would be a Christian, not in name 



SER. V.] THE NEW CREATURE. 73 

merely, but in the real experience of his heart ; would 
be delivered from all condemnation, and be in the 
possession of every blessing, he must be a new crea- 
ture, old things must pass away, and all things must 
become new. If any man has already attained these 
privileges, and is living now in their assured and con- 
scious possession, he is a new creature, old things have 
passed away, and all things have become new. The 
assertion of the text thus considered, presents itself, 

I. As A REQUISITION UPON THE SINNER; and 

II. AS A PRIVILEGE TO THE CHRISTIAN. 

We will consider these two, in their order. Our 
text is to be viewed, 

I. AS A REQUISITION UPON THE SINNER. " If any 

man be in Christ, he is a new creature." That is, 
nothing short of a new creation can constitute any 
man a Christian. The extent of this requisition is 
described, both in its application to individuals, and 
to personal character in each individual Under the 
former application, it refers to all men, without the 
exception of any. Under the latter, it requires in 
every one, the same work, which is a new creation. 

1 . If we consider the extent of the requisition, as 
applied to individuals, the emphasis rests upon the 
word " any." " If any man be in Christ, he is a new 
creature." It matters not who he may be, or what 
the relative and changing circumstances of his life. 
The assertion supposes only that he is a man, one of 
the human family. Whatever may be his character, 
or reputation, or privileges, no stress is laid upon, no 
reference is to be had, to either. If he would be in 
Christ, if he would be a Christian, he must be a new 
creature. 

G 10 



74 THE NEW CREATURE. [SER. V. 

The Apostle previously allows of himself, that there 
was a time when he "knew both Christ and men after 
the flesh;" that is, he judged them altogether upon a 
worldly and personal calculation. He thought of 
Christ with opposition and contempt ; and he thought 
of men, with respect for the pretensions which they 
set up. So the flesh had taught him. He imagined 
that there were great differences of character among 
men ; he thought much better of some than of 
others ; he respected the claims for merit which they 
asserted. But the true knowledge of Christ, and the 
experience of his new creating power, had overthrown 
this false system of determination. Henceforth, he 
could know no man, and estimate no character, ac- 
cording to this standard. The Spirit of God had 
taught him better. A new view had been given to 
him of his own real character, and of the universal 
character of unrenewed men. The conclusion which 
he had derived from the information which he had 
thus received, this light which had been bestowed 
upon him from heaven, he gives us in our present text 
Here, he overturns all those false assumptions in 
which proud and ignorant men indulge, and proclaims 
that doctrine, which to those who receive not, and love 
not the truth, is so deeply repulsive and hateful. It 
is the doctrine which declares, that in the natural re- 
lation in which sinful men stand to God, against whom 
they have rebelled, there is no difference among them; 
for " all have sinned, and come short of the glory of 
God," "every mouth is stopped, and the whole 
world is counted guilty before God ;" that there is 
but one " name under heaven given among men, 
whereby they can be saved;" and that no man can 



SER. V.] THE NEW CREATURE. 15 

become interested in this name, or be found in Christ 
Jesus, unless he be a new creature. 

The Gospel of the Lord Jesus, in making the 
claim upon the heart of man, which accompanies its 
offer of mercy, refers to the universal fact of the 
enmity of this heart to God, and it refers to this fact 
alone. It stops not to ask whether the man be a Jew 
or a Greek, moral or profligate, wise or ignorant, 
bond or free. It has but one requisition to make, 
which must be equally insisted upon every where. He 
must be born again. Old things must pass away. 
They cannot be repaired or improved, so that God 
will accept them. All things must become new. 

No natural difference in the human character has 
the least connexion with that grace by which we are 
saved ; or any influence upon the relation in which 
man, as a sinner, stands to God. Temper, amiable, 
or unamiable, forms no more ground for difference of 
claim for merit in the sight of God, than a counte- 
nance beautiful or repulsive, or an intellect cultivated 
or darkened. Without respect to any attainments of 
men in their natural character, and while unreconciled 
to God, we have but one grand message to deliver to 
all without exception. It is, that they " repent and 
be converted, that their sins may be blotted out, when 
the day of refreshing shall come from the presence of 
the Lord." 

Every unconverted man, whether baptized or un- 
baptized, whether a nominal Christian, or a professed 
Mohammedan or Pagan, is proclaimed in the divine 
word, to be by wicked works, an enemy to God, 
alienated from his favour and presence, and a rebel 



76 THE NEW CREATURE. [SER. V. 

against all his purposes and commands. A desire to 
glorify God, does not influence one of his actions. 
His motives arise from himself; and his whole object 
in life, is either immediately or remotely, to promote 
his own advantage. Whether he pursue his favoured, 
chosen object, in a course of integrity and upright 
dealing; or whether he attempt to secure it in a 
shorter method, by violence or fraud ; it is the single 
principle of selfish interest, and the single desire for 
personal gain, which excites him to diligence. If one 
course were as honourable in society as the other, 
and it would be so, but for the blessed influence of 
that very Gospel, which sinful man despises, the only 
determining motive for the conduct of unconverted 
men, would be the likelihood of gain. And God may 
say to the most high-minded and unblemished man, 
whose heart is still unreconciled to him, of his highest, 
and purest, and best actions, " hast thou done these 
things at all unto me?" 

The grand characteristic of unconverted men, is 
that " God is not in all their thoughts." He makes 
no part of their plan or object. " According to the 
flesh," in the expression of St. Paul, that is, judged 
by a merely human standard, there may be vast dif- 
ferences of character among them. But according to 
the standard of the Bible, where men are known only 
in their relation to God, there are none. Examined 
by the commands of the divine law, the whole world 
will come under the condemnation of God. Judged 
according to the offers of the Gospel, all who accept 
them not, are equally condemned. The wrath of 
God abideth on every one that believeth not in the 



SER. V.] THE NEW CREATURE. 77 

name of his only begotten Son. None do or can be- 
lieve in him, who are not born again, not of the will 
of the flesh, but of God. 

This is the extent of the requisition of our text, 
as it is applied to individuals. It belongs to all men 
without exception. " If any man be in Christ, he is 
a new creature." No man can become a Christian 
in any other method. " Except a man be born again, 
he cannot see the kingdom of God." 

2. The requisition of the text may be considered 
in its application to character in each individual. 
Here the emphasis is on the words new creature. 
The text declares, that while for all men some change 
of character is necessary, that change can be no less 
in any case, than a new creation. 

The question which is agitated among men upon 
this subject, is not so much about the necessity of 
some renovation in the human character, as a prepa- 
ration for the eternal blessedness promised in the 
Gospel, as about the extent of this demand. It is 
not, whether any change at all be necessary, but what 
that change shall be. There is not a man living, who 
feels himself absolutely fit and competent to appear 
in judgment before a heart-searching God. All see 
much deficiency in themselves which must be sup- 
plied, and much error which must be amended ; and 
therefore, all acknowledge, that there must be some 
renewal in the character of all, before they can see 
the face of God, and live. 

But then the question is immediately proposed, 

1 what must be done V We answer in conformity to 

the word of God, that there must be in every man 

living, a new birth, a spiritual conversion, a renewal 

g 2 



78 THE^NEW CREATURE. [SER. V. 

of the mind and heart, before he can enjoy the hope 
which the Gospel gives. In Christ Jesus, in whom 
alone man is safe, nothing availeth, but a new 
creation. 

The object to be obtained, the end professedly in 
view, marks this necessity for a new creation. This 
object is not, to be in the church. That may easily 
be secured by a conformity to appointed outward or- 
dinances. It is not be upright and reformed in ex- 
ternal conduct merely. This may be accomplished 
by man's own determination and exertions. It is not 
to obtain a good reputation among men. That may 
be acquired by due attention to the outward relative 
character, of which alone man can judge. But it is 
to be in Christ ; to have a spiritual and unchangeable 
union with him ; and to be made with him, a joint 
heir of everlasting glory. This object no partial 
change of character can secure. The natural man 
cannot enjoy, any more than he can understand, the 
things of the Spirit of God. The blessings which 
are promised in Christ Jesus, are altogether spiritual 
blessings; and the preparation of character, which 
shall enable us to possess and enjoy them, must be 
spiritual also. To attain this important end, nothing 
which is merely outward is of any avail ; nay, every 
thing outward is worse than unavailing, if it be put 
in the place of this grand point of Gospel requisi- 
tion, the renewal of the soul by the Holy Spirit, after 
the image of God. God alone reveals the things 
which he has provided for them that love him ; and 
he alone can make the way plain and open, in which 
they are to be obtained. If these unspeakable bless- 
ings are our object ; if it is our wish to be in Christ, 



SER. V.] THE NEW CREATURE. 79 

when God maketh inquisition for sin ; the holy Scrip- 
ture gives us both its commands and promises, lead- 
ing us to seek for a new heart, and to desire to have 
a right spirit formed within us. " They that are in 
the flesh cannot please God." 

This new creation of the heart, we are commanded 
everywhere to require. In our demands upon men 
as the ministers of Christ, we dwell upon this alone. 
The propriety of our unceasing urging of this, as uni- 
versally necessary, is farther manifest from the fact, 
that generally speaking, we have but comparatively few 
charges to make against the outward conduct of men. 
Such is the extended influence of the religion of 
Jesus, and such is the power which its reflected light 
exercises, to purify and restrain the character of hu- 
man society, even among those who deny its actual 
claims upon the heart, that the greater portion of 
those to whom the Gospel is here offered, are exter- 
nally respectable and correct. It is not, therefore, 
to the outward deficiencies or transgressions of men, 
that our attention is particularly called. There are 
many of you, my friends, without love to God, and 
by your own acknowledgment, without the spiritual 
submission of your hearts to Christ, who are still in 
external deportment correct, perhaps exemplary. And 
there would be no essential change in your discharge 
of relative and domestic duties, or in the fulfilment 
of the business of your various stations, except that 
the sweet influence of true piety would be thrown 
over the whole, and you would do all for Christ, if 
you should become in the Gospel method, the true 
followers of the Lord Jesus. 

This is not only true in moral deportment. In the ser- 



80 THE NEW CREATURE. [SER. V. 

vices of religious worship also, many unconverted men 
are found exceedingly precise, and strict, and regular. 
None were more so than the Pharisees of old, who 
attempted thus to work out a righteousness for them- 
selves, while they were hateful and abhorrent to God 
for their sins, and assumed upon themselves, the curse 
of a rejected Saviour. Like them, there are many in 
our day, who have no knowledge of vital religion, the 
religion of the heart, nay, who even deride and op- 
pose it, who are still, quite marked in their attention 
to the outward services of religion, and in their con- 
formity to modes of worship. 

Now, in all these cases, the difficulty which sepa- 
rates such persons from God, and from all hope in 
him, is not an external one. It is a radical perver- 
sion of motive and principle. They are doing nothing 
for the Lord. The change which is required for them 
is not a mere change of outward character. It is a 
change of the heart, a new creation of the soul in its 
principles and objects of pursuit. They are without 
Christ ; and they are perishing in their sins, although 
they are moral in deportment, and strict in ceremony. 
No mere external demand or precept will reach their 
case. They have but one simple want. But that 
want is a total one. They must be new men. They 
need to be in Christ ; and to be in him, they must be 
begotten again, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to 
the enjoyment of the lively and glorious hope which 
he bestows. To do them good, this necessity must 
be exhibited. They must see how entirely defective 
are their best services. The solemn and unrelaxing 
demands of Almighty God, for inward purity, for 
spiritual cleanness, must be pressed upon their con- 



SER. V.] THE NEW CREATURE. 81 

sciences with power from on high. For them every 
tiling is unavailing, but that which can be made the 
instrument of converting their souls to God, and 
making them like little children before him. This 
they must be made to feel, or they perish without 
hope. 

Again, we are at all times to insist upon this new 
creation of the soul, because all demands for mere 
outward changes of conduct are so limited and par- 
tial in their application. There is no one external 
reproof or requirement, which can be enforced with 
an universal application. This constitutes the utter 
inefficacy of all that may be termed mere moral 
preaching. Let our attention be directed to whatever 
partial change of character it may, we cannot call 
upon all men with it. Some on the one side, and 
some on the other, are found beyond its reach. No 
external characteristic of immorality, is to be found 
in all men. All are not Sabbath breakers, or drunk- 
ards, or thieves. If we admonish for a particular 
transgression, there are some whose consciences do 
not acknowledge the reproof. If we exhort to a par- 
ticular duty, there are others who are ready to thank 
God, that they have never failed in its performance. 
These varieties in the outward characters of men, are 
quite innumerable. But in the dispositions and pur- 
poses of the natural heart towards God, there is no 
difference. All men in their own nature are without 
love to God, without a desire for a Saviour, without 
a purpose or wish to glorify him. Here is a cha- 
racteristic which is absolutely universal. The Gospel 
therefore, settles its grand requisition, upon that which 
is the universal deficiency. Man looketh upon the 

11 



82 THE NEW CREATURE. [SER. V. 

outward appearance, and supposes that a partial re- 
formation will supply every want, and answer the 
whole necessity. God looketh upon the heart, and 
proclaims that to be full of evil. He calls, therefore, 
for the cleansing, and the submission of that; and 
directs the exertions of all to make the tree good, 
that its fruit may be good also. The Gospel in its 
solemn requisition upon the unrenewed sinner, stops 
not to enjoin one particular duty or another. It 
fastens its hold simply and wholly upon his alienated 
heart, and demands the entire and cheerful submission 
of that to God. The simple fact of danger and guilt 
which it announces to him, is " thou hast neither part 
nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the 
sight of God ; thou art in the gall of bitterness, and 
in the bond of iniquity." Revealing to him this one 
fact beyond dispute, it insists upon his gaining a new 
heart, and having a right spirit renewed within him, 
and putting on the new man, that he may be found in 
Christ Jesus, and be justified freely through him. 

This is the extent of the requisition of the text, as 
it is applied to personal character in each individual. 
There must be in every sinner, a total change of 
motive and principle, before he can find acceptance 
with the Lord. His spirit of rebellion and personal 
independence must pass away ; and the spirit of 
entire submission to God, and of full delight in his 
perfections, and his glory, must assume the place of it. 
The transforming influence of true religion must 
govern every principle of the character, and every 
motive of the conduct. The sinner is pursuing a 
road entirely wrong, and utterly ruinous. He is 
without the least conformity of his character, to the 



SER. V.] THE NEW CREATURE. 83 

will of a holy God. The revolution in his character 
must therefore, be an entire one, before he can be 
safe in the prospect of eternity. Inferior purposes 
may be obtained by partial alterations. But if you 
would be found in Christ, clothed with his righteous- 
ness, and purified in his blood ; if you would be made 
partakers of his unfading and eternal inheritance ; this 
is to be accomplished solely in the immediate and 
entire conversion of your souls to him. " If any man 
be in Christ he is a new creature." 

3. As a proper improvement of this subject, I pray 
you, my brethren, to bring your attention simply and 
fairly to the point which has been placed before you. 
You cannot set it aside. You cannot get by it. The 
solemn requisition of the text stands directly across 
your path. It is there immoveably fixed before you, 
and by it alone will your characters be tried, and your 
eternity be determined, at the last. All the glories 
of the Gospel are offered for your attainment. But 
it is only in the acceptance of this, its first privilege, 
that the succeeding ones can be enjoyed. The city 
of the living God offers you an abundant and ever- 
lasting shelter. But upon its very gate is written, 
" Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into 
the kingdom of God." It is vain and useless to plead 
the possession of any other qualification, while this 
is wanting. All allegations of amiableness of temper, 
of a restrained and well-regulated course of life, of 
habits of integrity, of civil, harmless, or affectionate 
deportment, of benevolent exertions for the good of 
mankind, are answered immediately, by a repetition 
of the same testimony, " except a man be born again, 
he cannot see the kingdom of God." 



84 THE NEW CREATURE. [SER. V. 

My friends, you may excuse yourselves as you will 
upon the ground of education or personal conduct, 
but you will be brought to this standard for trial, as 
your final test. You may foolishly postpone from 
year to year, all concern about it, and refuse to sub- 
mit to the requisition which it lays upon you, but all 
your efforts will only serve to increase your difficul- 
ties and your condemnation. You will find it made 
at last, the alternative to eternal ruin. You must 
become converted unto God, renewed in the spirit of 
your mind, made new creatures in Christ Jesus, or 
your souls are lost. 

If this be truth, why should you not yield at once 
to the new creating power of God's waiting Spirit? 
What can you gain by refusing to submit to the Re- 
deemer of men? His terms will not be relaxed. 
What he now offers to you freely, you may hereafter 
ask for in vain. You may now yield yourselves to 
him, and find peace in believing in him. You may 
become vessels of his mercy, and experience the com- 
forts and benefits which will flow from this delightful 
privilege. But carelessness of future responsibility, 
or a procrastinating spirit, or a love of the pleasures 
of sin for a season, leading you to a rejection of the 
Saviour and his Spirit, will certainly shut out your 
souls forever from the hope and the opportunity of 
eternal life ; and you will find yourselves in the end, 
rejected and renounced by the Saviour, by whose 
name you are called, as those whom he never knew, 
and who are cursed forever under the burden of un- 
pardoned sin. 



SERMON VI. 



THE NEW CREATURE. 



2 Corinthians v. 17. — Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a 
new creature ; old things are passed away ,• behold, all things are 
become new. 



This assertion may be considered, either as pro- 
spective, declaring what is necessary for him who 
would obtain the character and privileges of a Chris- 
tian ; or as retrospective, announcing what has been 
already accomplished in those who have experienced 
the change of character and condition which it de- 
scribes. Under the first of these forms, as a solemn 
requisition upon the unconverted sinner, I have 
already spoken of it. My present object is to speak 
of it under the second, as a delightful privilege to the 
renewed Christian. Considered under this aspect, 
the text declares a fact of immense moment to those 
of whom the declaration may be truly made, and con- 
taining advantages which are unspeakably important 
and precious. This fact is the thorough and perma- 
nent renovation of character in all those who are in 
Christ ; in all the people of God. 

"If any man be in Christ," if any man under the 
H 85 



86 THE NEW CREATURE. [SER. VI. 

blessed influence of the Gospel, has accepted the offer 
of divine acceptance, and become really a Christian, 
"he is a new creature." He is so now; this is his 
present condition, his blessed and unchangeable pri- 
vilege. " Old things are passed away, behold all 
things are become new." The point which is to be 
settled is, is any man in Christ ? To decide this, the 
text announces that, which if he be so, is at once his 
evidence and his privilege. He is a new creature. 
There has been accomplished in him, by divine power, 
a new creation. He is a new man. And as such, he 
may be easily examined, and must be readily known. 
In the character which he now bears, and in which 
he appears both to the divine and human inspection, 
there is decision and permanency. Mere changes in 
the outward conduct of man, like the change of his 
garments, may in some degree alter his appearance to 
others ; but they leave the man himself, in reality, just 
what he was before. He has partially assumed a new 
aspect and attitude, to those who can see only the ex- 
terior, but his heart and principles are left altogether 
unchanged and unaffected. The bringing of the same 
man to Christ, and uniting him to Christ, by the 
power of the divine Spirit, effects within him a total 
change and revolution of motive and principle. This 
makes him another man. It puts another heart within 
him. It sets him out in a progress of character, di- 
rectly opposite to that which he has pursued before ; 
a progress in which there shall be no return ; but in 
which he shall be kept by the power of Cod, through 
faith unto salvation. This is the view which is given 
us in our present text. The man who is now in 
Christ, has passed through this important requisition ; 



SER. VI.] THE NEW CREATURE. 87 

has undergone the change which is declared to be 
thus indispensable ; and is enjoying the peculiar com- 
forts which this new creation is designed to commu- 
nicate. Under this application I would now present 
the text for your consideration. It exhibits the pri- 
vilege of the Christian ; the actual and assured con- 
dition of the true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
For him " old things are passed away, behold all 
things are become new." 

The application of this text is confined, by some, 
whose views of religion are far too low, and too loose, 
for us to copy, to those Gentiles who were brought into 
the Christian church, immediately from heathen idola- 
try. It was certainly true in reference to such ; but upon 
no ground which was peculiar to themselves. When 
the blinded mind of man is enlightened by the Spirit 
of God, and the heart which has loved the creature 
more than the Creator, is changed and renewed by 
his power, the very same work is accomplished, and 
by the same power, and to the production of the same 
effects, in every age, and in every portion of the 
world. All the descriptions of man's natural cha- 
racter in the word of God, precisely meet the expe- 
rience of man, in the most refined state of human 
society ; and all the exhibitions of his renewed state, 
are entirely accordant with what every Christian 
throughout the world, finds to be the operation of 
divine grace upon himself. The text will be found, 
therefore, to be universally applicable. And as it 
proclaims without exception, when it comes as a re- 
quisition, if any man would be in Christ, he must be 
a new creature ; so it announces in an expression 
equally unlimited, when it comes as a privilege, if any 



88 THE NEW CREATURE. [SER. VI. 

man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are 
passed away, behold all things are become new. 

II. This privilege to the Christian, we pro- 
ceed to consider under the various aspects which its 
different circumstances and parts present. 

1. In the personal relations which the Christian 
sustains, " he is a new creature ; old things are 
passed away, behold, all things are become new." 

This is the fact, in his relations to God his Creator 
and Judge. The violated law which heaped its 
curses on his head, while he was an impenitent trans- 
gressor, a rebel unreconciled to God, and in its con- 
demnation, delivered him over to the vengeance of 
eternal fire, has given place to that new covenant of 
promise and mercy, which offers peace and salvation in 
the obedience of the Lord Jesus, and secures to him 
the everlasting favour of God, being in all things well 
ordered and sure. He stands in the divine presence 
no longer under condemnation. No charges of guilt 
are made against him now. The penalty for his sin 
has been endured. The offering for his justification 
has been made. God is no longer angry with him 
every day ; but as a reconciled Father, shines unceas- 
ingly upon his soul, in the fulness and tenderness of 
grace. He enjoys the comfort of this new relation. 
His conscience is peaceful through the blood of sprink- 
ling, and perfect love has cast out fear. He trembles 
no more in the presence of a Judge rising up for ven- 
geance upon the ungodly ; but rejoices in the guar- 
dianship of a divine protector, and an unchangeable 
friend, who is faithful in all his promises, and abound- 
ing in grace in all his provisions for his people. 

Such is also the fact in his relation to Jesus the Sa- 



SER. VI.] THE NEW CREATURE. 89 

viour. Once, like others, he despised and rejected 
him. He turned away from all his offers of pardon 
and love. He walked in regard to him, in the blind- 
ness of his mind, having his understanding darkened, 
and his heart hardened, through the power of sin. 
Now he acknowledges and feels the inestimable im- 
portance of such a Saviour ; and has embraced him 
in the warm affections of his heart, as his comfort, 
and hope, and portion forever. Jesus is not only a 
Saviour, but is now his Saviour. There has been 
between them a reciprocal imputation. His guilt has 
been laid upon the Lord, who has endured its curse, 
and carried it away forever ; and the perfect obedi- 
ence of the Lord has been put upon him as his glo- 
rious and everlasting covering, and he enjoys the re- 
ward of it for eternity. The Son of God is no longer 
driven from his affections, to make way for inferior 
objects, but is the one grand object of all his desire, 
and of his supreme love. Mutual tenderness and 
mutual delight, make the friendship which has been 
thus formed, animating and precious. The influences 
of the Saviour's Spirit are welcomed, and encouraged, 
and prized, and no longer resisted or quenched. The 
presence and favour of the glorious Emanuel, revealed 
by the agency of this blessed Spirit, are constantly 
desired and sought after; and Jesus as a personal 
Saviour, appears in the highest degree estimable and 
precious. 

This is also the fact in his relations to men around 
him. Here all things are become new. To the chil- 
dren of God, the converted and believing, wherever 
they are, he is a brother and a friend. While he 

H 2 12 



90 THE NEW CREATURE. [SER. VI. 

loves God supremely, he loves every one who bears 
the image of God. He is a member of that holy 
body of which Christ is the head, and he feels him- 
self to be thus united unto all who partake of the 
same fulness, with an abiding spirit of love. The 
spontaneous expression of his heart, is " Grace be 
unto all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sin- 
cerity." He rejoices to do them good. He loves to 
labour with them for Christ. He finds his chief de- 
light in this communion of saints. 

To the unconverted, he feels a bond of pity which he 
never knew before. He now knows the galling chain 
which they ignorantly wear. Earthly friends who 
are without Christ, have now a tenfold interest in his 
heart, beyond what he felt before. He labours with 
earnest desire, and prays with deep anxiety in their 
behalf, that they may have the eyes of their under- 
standing enlightened, and discern the things which are 
freely given them from God. He longs to see them 
also, become new creatures in Jesus Christ. He feels 
the same pity for all the impenitent among men. 
Wherever they are, he desires their full conversion 
unto God, their everlasting salvation in Jesus Christ. 
And to gain this end, he willingly spends, and is 
spent, in the service, and for the glory of the Re- 
deemer. 

In all these relations, the Christian is a new crea- 
ture. And in his state of mind and spiritual condi- 
tion, under this aspect, " old things are passed away, 
and all things are become new." 

2. In his personal character, the Christian is a 
new creature. He has been renewed in the spirit of 



SER. VI.] THE NEW CREATURE. 91 

his mind, after the image of him who has created him. 
He has thus put on the new man, which is renewed 
in holiness, by the Spirit of God. 

He is released from the dominion of sin. Having 
been received under the covenanted power of divine 
grace, sin shall no more have dominion over him. It 
may dwell within him, but it dwells there as a cap- 
tive, not as a ruler. Its influence may be often felt. 
It may sometimes obtain a short ascendancy. When 
he would do good, he may often find evil present with 
him. He may often groan in anguish, over the body of 
death which he finds himself compelled to carry about 
with him. But all this evidence of his infirmity is suf- 
fered for his good, to settle him the more completely, in 
humility, and in dependence upon God. He is sinful 
in himself; but he is not regarded, or dealt with as a 
sinner in the sight of God. He is imperfect and in- 
firm in his character and purposes; but he is not, 
and he shall not be, governed by the principles, or 
the power of sin. God is daily giving him the vic- 
tory ; and he will finally accomplish it for him, 
through Jesus Christ. The hour is at hand, and will 
soon arrive, when the Spirit of holiness which has 
been implanted in his heart, shall become a tri- 
umphant and overruling spirit for eternity ; and when 
the sin, which in its power is already conquered and 
crushed, shall in its very existence, be destroyed 
forever. 

He is released from the darkness and confusion of 
mind, which sin has produced. He has been brought 
back by the Holy Spirit, to that order of character, 
in which man was formed at first. The image of God 
which was lost in man's apostacy, has been restored 



92 THE NEW CREATURE. [SER. VI. 

to him, in his conversion. His understanding is en- 
lightened from above, and controls his will, drawing 
it back into a cheerful submission to God. His will 
thus regulated and conformed to God, governs his 
affections, and leads them to the things which are 
above. His heart is fixed, trusting in God. Thus 
in the true order of his powers, his whole soul is de- 
voted to the service of God. He is enlightened to 
discern the things which are excellent. He is able to 
choose them according to their worth. He loves those 
most, and with the most elevated feeling, which are 
most desirable. He follows after them, as they are 
held up before him; and reaching forward to the 
things which are above, he presses to the mark of the 
prize of his high calling in Christ Jesus. Thus his 
heart has become right in the sight of God. 

He has received a principle of divine grace within 
him, which shall flourish and increase forever. The 
work which is progressing in his heart, is the work 
of God. It may now be small and weak, like the 
mustard seed. But it shall grow and spread itself 
abroad eternally. The promises and illustrations of 
the Scripture point to this continual growth of the 
kingdom of God in the Christian's heart, and en- 
courage him with the assurance, that the Lord will 
perfect that which he has begun for him, and carry 
on the good work unto the day of the Lord Jesus. 
Thus in his personal character, old things are passed 
away, and all things are become new. All former re- 
formations were limited and temporary. This reno- 
vation of his soul, is entire and perpetual. He re- 
mains fixed in his determination of obedience to God, 
and no fears need rest upon his mind, nor any doubts 



SER.VL] THE NEW CREATURE. 93 

to agitate or distress him. His rock is sure. His 
hope shall not be overthrown. Lust, and passion, 
and pride, and devotion to the world and self, are 
conquered by divine power ; and he shall be kept by 
that power, through faith, unto everlasting life. His 
religious interests and hopes are safe, because they 
are not entrusted to his own care, but preserved for 
him, by divine power and faithfulness. His bow abideth 
in strength, and the arms of his hands are made strong 
by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. 

3. In his associates, the Christian is a new crea- 
ture. Old things are passed away. His delight is 
in the saints that are in the earth, and in such as 
excel in virtue. There was a time when he avoided 
the society of the pious ; when he felt opposed to the 
assemblies for worship and religious instruction; 
when he turned away from those who set God always 
before them. There was a time when he loved the 
associations of the worldly, the haunts of giddiness 
and mirth, the marts of wealth and emolument. The 
profanity of the ungodly gave him no pain. Their 
devotion to this life did not seem to be unreasonable. 
Their forgetfulness of God excited no astonishment. 
The gilded attractions of the present world led him 
astray with others, in a voluntary delusion. 

Now there has been a total revolution in all his 
intercourse with men. He has turned away from all 
the vain things which charmed him most. He finds 
no pleasure in the follies of the world. Its scenes 
of recreation do not attract him. Its temptations 
cannot deceive him. He has forsaken the society of 
those who fear not God ; and he selects for his com- 
panions and friends, those in whom he can find the • 



94 THE NEW CREATURE. [SER. VI. 

divine image, and the mind of Christ. One hour 
passed with them in the worship of the Redeemer 
whom he loves, gives him more real pleasure than he 
ever found, in all the trifles by which his unrenewed 
heart was drawn and governed. He looks back with 
wonder and shame, to the time when he roamed in 
utter thoughtlessness about his high vocation, and was 
wholly occupied with the most vain and worthless 
objects. He now regards men according to their 
character in the sight of God. He respects them, as 
they love and adhere to the truth of the Gospel. He 
seeks their society, as he finds Jesus with them, 
and finds them to be helpful to him in the things 
which belong to his peace ; or as he may be able to do 
them good, for the sake of Jesus Christ. If his ne- 
cessary business drive him into the world, he regards 
it only as his place of duty and labour, not as the 
source of his pleasure and enjoyment. He thank- 
fully returns to the society of those whose character 
can give him pleasure, and who are pursuing, with 
him, the path of spiritual holiness and life. He 
would rather be a door-keeper in the house of the 
Lord, than dwell in the tents of ungodliness, as their 
possessor and lord. In this entire change of his taste 
and dispositions, in reference to present associates, 
he finds one valuable evidence, that he is indeed in 
Christ, and a new creature ; that for him, old things are 
passed away and all things are become new. God 
has bestowed upon him this love for holy society; and 
it is the comfortable foundation for hope, that it shall 
be forever gratified also by him, in the eternal fellow- 
ship of saints and angels, around the Redeemer's 
1 throne in heaven. 



SER. VI.] THE NEW CREATURE. 95 

4. The Christian is a new creature in his occupa- 
tions and enjoyments. Here, all things are become 
new. The meat which perisheth, is not that which 
he now supremely desires; but he seeks for that 
which endure th unto everlasting life. His motives 
for present exertion arise from a far higher source 
than any earthly things. His wish and purpose are, 
to glorify God in his body and his spirit, which are 
his. He feels that God has given him a work to 
finish, and that an account of his stewardship must 
be rendered up to him. His desire is, in the fulfil- 
ment of every required duty, to honour the great and 
perfect name of his covenant God, whom he delights 
to serve. His occupations are still in the world, but 
he is not of the world. Religion sanctifies his daily 
engagements. True piety reigns over all the works 
of his hands. And through the divine blessing all 
things are made to work together for his good. His 
grand concern is to glorify God in his own salvation, 
and in promoting the salvation of others. All his 
plans and occupations in life, are in some way de- 
signed to unite in promoting this great end. This 
occupation and purpose is to him altogether new. 
He was not before accustomed to care for the souls 
of any. The religion and hope of the Gospel did 
not before appear to him the one thing needful. But 
now, however he may be occupied in life, he can say 
with St. Paul, " This one thing I do, forgetting the 
things which are behind, and reaching forward unto 
those things which are before, I press to the mark of 
the prize of my high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 
Every thing in life is with him in some degree con- 
nected with the cause of religion. He surveys the 



96 THE NEW CREATURE. [SER. VI. 

map of the world, as a religious man. He views the 
concerns of human society, and marks and estimates 
the occupations of men, as they stand related to this 
great subject. And he makes it his own plan, to 
begin, continue, and end all his engagements, in the 
service and to the glory of God. 

"While his occupations are thus new, his enjoy- 
ments and pleasures are so also. His comforts and 
joys come to him from above. In the multitude of 
his thoughts within him, divine comforts delight his 
soul. He looks beyond the bounds of sense, to find 
his joy and his crown of rejoicing in eternity. The 
delight which he once received, and which he still 
sees others to take in the vanities of the world, is 
now a subject of astonishment with him. The re- 
pulsive aspect which the services of religious worship 
used to wear to his mind, is equally so. Prayer is 
no longer a task, but a pleasure. The Bible comes 
to him, not so much to remind him of a duty, as to 
call him to a privilege. It is a high enjoyment to 
worship God in spirit and in truth ; and a delightful 
thing to be thankful to him for his gifts of love. Un- 
bounded mercies continually surrounding him, call for 
new praise from his heart, from day to day. Every 
gift, whether of Providence or of grace, exhibits to 
his mind a new aspect of his Father's goodness, in 
the contemplation of which he takes great delight. 
This is all new. The love of the world used to reign 
where the love of the Father now controls. The 
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of 
life, used to govern where the glory of the cross is 
now the only boasting. The affections of his heart 
are now set upon things which are above, which be- 



SER. VI.] THE NEW CREATURE. 97 

fore had no higher object than the perishing vanities 
of the world. Thus for him all things are become 
new, because he is in Christ. Life is happy, not in 
proportion to the abundance of things which he pos- 
ses seth, but in the dominion over his heart in all its 
concerns, of that peace of God which passeth under- 
standing. 

5. He is a new creature in his prospects. Here old 
things are passed away. He is released from the 
bondage of the fear of death, from the condemnation 
for sin, which made the wrath of God to abide upon 
him. He has in the blessed promises of the Gospel, 
the assurance of that perfect love in God for him, 
which casteth out all fear. He has an abiding testi- 
mony, that he has been bought with a price, and an 
abiding hope of a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory, which has been also, by the same 
price, bought for him. His actual expectations are 
thus changed, because the facts before him are im- 
measurably changed. He looks forward to no sor- 
row, or pain, or death, in eternity. No flames of 
anguish rise up in his path. No undying worm is 
preparing for ravages upon his soul. God the Saviour 
has opened the way to bliss and glory ; and there is 
prepared by him, for the new creature whom he hath 
formed, a crown which is incorruptible, and unfading 
for eternity. All that God can bestow to fill up the 
measure of his perfection and bliss, is secured to him 
by a covenant, which cannot be removed, and which 
equally keeps, and keeps with equal certainty, him for 
glory, and glory for him. 

This is a brief view of the text, considered as a 
privilege for the Christian. " If any man be in Christ, 
I 13 



98 THE NEW CREATURE. [SER. VI. 

he is a new creature, old things are passed away, be- 
hold all things are become new." This is the present 
actual privilege of the renewed man. It is now his 
property, and he now enjoys it, far more certainly 
than the house in which he dwells, or the food by 
which his body is sustained. 

6. My brethren, you see here the worth of real 
piety, the true value of the religion of the Gospel. 
It can be regarded only as a source of lasting enjoy- 
ment and peace, to the heart which is governed by it. 
He who considers the service of God but as a duty 
which must be accomplished, sees none of its real 
worth. He who looks upon it as the perfect freedom 
which man desires, the highest honour, and the only 
happiness of an immortal being, sees it, as it is re- 
vealed, and finds it even more to his soul than he 
could have anticipated. O, my friends, thus seek, 
and thus embrace the Gospel ! It is all you want ; 
and your regenerated souls will rejoice forever in the 
unsearchable riches of its grace. 

You see here the actual encouragement for the 
Christian's hope and the Christian's effort. There is 
no uncertainty in his attainment of the end he seeks. 
He is pressing forward in a path of life. He is a 
new creature ; formed by God, with whom there is 
no change or shadow of turning, for high, and noble, 
and heavenly ends. No created mind is competent 
to describe the issue which awaits him, and for which 
he is set apart by the grace of God. Between him 
and that glorious issue, though there are many diffi- 
culties, there is no uncertainty. He may soar up- 
ward through the shining path to glory, perfectly con- 
fident, that what God has undertaken, he will certainly 



SER. VI.] THE NEW CREATURE. 99 

accomplish, to the eternal honour of his own most 
holy name. He has in this certainty of the result 
before him, the greatest possible encouragement to 
steadfastness and eiFort. 

Here we also see the real test of human character. 
Is man a new creature ? Has he passed from death 
unto life ? Has he been begotten again by the power 
of the Highest, to the enjoyment of a Gospel hope ? 
Is he a converted man ? The answer to this single 
question involves all that man can look for for eter- 
nity. Heaven and hell are suspended upon the deci- 
sion of it. This question must be answered here or 
hereafter. Its affirmative answer will be here, the 
only fountain of peace ; hereafter, the only possible 
charter of hope, and preparation for glory. The un- 
righteous cannot inherit the kingdom of God. May 
God give you grace to seek this glorious character, 
and glorious hope ! May he lead you thus, at once, 
to enter upon that progress of conformity to him, 
which shall result in the bliss of his own presence 
forever ! 



SERMON VII. 



THE LORD'S SIDE. 



Exodus xxxii. 26. — Who is on the Lord's side ? 

In man's apostacy from God, the native disposi 
tions of the human heart have become universally 
opposed to the divine will. The carnal, or natural 
mind has become enmity against God, and refuses to 
be made subject to his commands. Its affections are 
enchained by concerns of transitory interest, and fol- 
low without control the attractions of sensible ob- 
jects. Its will is determined in the way of selfish 
gratifications, and has no ability to withdraw itself 
from them, to seek after the things which are above. 
Man has become the slave of appetite, the victim of 
corruption, and by wicked works the enemy of God. 
This aversion to the divine government, exists in 
every unconverted heart ; and it is the difference of 
circumstances alone, which causes a difference in its 
development in the outward character and conduct. 
The exercise of amiable and affectionate dispositions 
towards man, may gild and conceal its purposes. 
Education and the restraints of surrounding society 

100 



SER. VII.] THE LORD'S SIDE. 101 

may prevent the full exhibition of its odious charac- 
teristics. The very principle of its own selfishness, 
may often cloak its plans of sin. But the native 
enmity of the heart to God still remains. Often it 
betrays his aversion to the purity of the divine com- 
mands, to the view of his fellow-men. Often it rises 
up to his own awakened conscience, under a terrific 
and remorseful aspect. By the searching eye of Al- 
mighty God, it is unceasingly marked with abhorrence 
for its guiltiness, and with sorrow for its effects. 

This fact of the natural and universal enmity of 
the human heart to God, is made the foundation of 
all the plans of divine grace. While we were ene- 
mies to him, and because we were enemies to him, 
God hath given his only begotten Son to die for 
us, that whosoever believeth in him, might not perish, 
but have everlasting life. In the midst of this 
world of enemies, God hath accomplished this myste- 
rious and glorious scheme of redemption for man. 
By a method which angels desire to understand, but 
which is elevated, in its operation and influence, above 
the reach of all created comprehension, he has recon- 
ciled rebels unto himself; and has gathered from 
among them a peculiar people, who, by his own Spirit, 
have been made submissive to his holy will. He has 
established a spiritual and unchangeable dominion 
in the very midst of the powers of darkness, against 
which the gates of hell shall not be permitted to pre- 
vail. Thus the world has been divided. Its uncon- 
verted portion of men still remain the children of 
disobedience, the subjects of the prince of darkness, 
vessels of wrath, fitted to destruction. But God has 
drawn out also, from among them, another portion by 
12 



102 the lord's side. [ser. VII. 

his Holy Spirit, a ransomed flock, who are called by 
the name of his own Son, marshalled under the ban- 
ners of this glorious Redeemer, to be made victorious 
in him over all their enemies, and to be kept by his 
power through faith unto salvation. These followers 
of the Son of God are in the world. They are 
connected with the children of the world, by a thou- 
sand ties of nature. But they are not of the world, 
even as he was not of the world. They have a 
spiritual birth, a spiritual character, a spiritual home. 
They have come out and separated themselves from 
the principles of the world, and are bound together 
by a new tie, under a new ruler, Jesus Christ the 
righteous. They constitute "the Lord's side," in 
the present world, as I may, without injustice, apply 
the expression of my text. And in reference to such 
a division among men, I propose to you the question 
of the text : " Who is on the Lord's side ?" Where 
are the lines of demarcation among you, my brethren, 
between the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of 
Satan? Who among you are the unpardoned and 
unrenewed children of this world? And who are 
the purchased and purified children of God ? 

There is a sense in which all who hear me, may 
assume to be upon the Lord's side. They have 
voluntarily assembled in the house which he has sanc- 
tified, avowedly to worship him, to make an offering 
of praise and prayer to him, and to listen to the mes- 
sages of his word. Should our examination proceed 
no farther than the mere language of personal asser- 
tion, this claim might be allowed. But, alas, the Lord 
sees in his holy temple, many things which must be 
taken hence. The sinful hearts of men still bring all 



SER. VII.] THE LORD'S SIDE. 103 

the business and the follies of the world into the 
sanctuary of God ; and the inspection of them by a 
divine eye, shows the abomination which maketh de- 
solate, standing in the holy place. This is an unde- 
niable fact ; and while it is so, we are bound to carry 
our investigation much farther than this apparent pur- 
pose of men, in asking and determining who are on 
the Lord's side. 

I. In outward profession they are on the Lord's 
side, who have become partakers of the peculiar or- 
dinances which the Saviour has established for his 
church. These ordinances he has made imperative. 
The authority which has appointed them is supreme, 
and no subordinate power can in any wise reverse 
them, or set them aside. Until men have become 
members of that body which is " sanctified by the 
washing of water, through the word," in outward 
baptism ; until they have established the covenant 
into which they have thus entered, by " the laying on 
of hands," which two appointments constitute " the 
first principles of the doctrine of Christ," in regard 
to outward ordinances ; until they are led to continue 
in this fellowship, in the breaking of bread, in memory 
of Christ; they cannot be said to be on the Lord's 
side in the world, whatever be the state and prepara- 
tion of the heart. Both the body and spirit of man 
are required to glorify him who hath bought them 
both with a price. The faith of the one, if it has 
been wrought there by him, will not be separated 
from the open, appointed profession of him with the 
other. While the heart believeth unto righteousness, 
the mouth must make confession unto salvation. 
These two God hath joined together; and the nature 



104 the lord's side. [ser. VII. 

and constitution of man, as well as the authority of 
God, make it impossible that they should be safely 
put asunder. By the outward fruits of simple obe- 
dience to the commands of Christ, are we to show the 
faith which dwells in our hearts; and a professed 
faith which does not result in such works of obe- 
dience, is declared to be dead. But then the utmost 
conformity to ordinances, without the attending, ade- 
quate renewing of the Spirit, is useless also. The 
most solemn outward profession may cover an unsub- 
dued, nay, a cherished enmity to God. All are not 
Israel in heart, who are of Israel in name. Tares 
are growing with the wheat. Children of darkness, 
fitting for their own place, assemble with the sons of 
God, in all these privileges of the outward sanctuary. 
This leads us to the necessity of a more intimate ex- 
amination. The Saviour has said, " except a man be 
born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into 
the kingdom of God." This must be received as the 
law of his kingdom. Man has no authority to say 
that either may be dispensed with. On the one side, we 
may not say, that he may certainly enter into the 
kingdom of God, who believes himself to have expe- 
rienced a spiritual birth, but discards the appointed 
outward profession of the fact ; nor on the other side, 
that he is secure who is a participant of ordinances 
with the utmost accuracy, but wants the spiritual new 
creation within. The two united, constitute the new 
birth, without which no man can enter into the king- 
dom of God. But neither by itself, comes up to the 
Saviour's demand for a regeneration in man. And we 
are not authorised by the Scripture to allow either, in 
separation, to be a sufficient preparation for eternal 



SER. VII.] THE LORD'S SIDE. 105 

life. While, therefore, this outward profession in the 
Lord's ordinances, is the personal, public assertion, 
that we are upon the Lord's side, it opens the way for 
a further examination of the real spirit and character 
of men. There is another standard which looks far 
beyond all outward professions, in a determination of 
this question. There are sure and incontestible evi 
dences that our profession is a just and sincere one. 
There is a character which the power of man cannot 
feign, and which accurately marks those who have 
enlisted themselves under the banner of the King of 
saints. These evidences are to be presented, not as 
the marks by which we may form an opinion of others, 
but as the testimony by which we may examine our- 
selves. 

II. To these characteristics of those who are on 
the Lord's side, I would now direct your attention. 

1. They who are on the Lord's side, have been 
converted by the power of the Holy Ghost, from their 
natural state of blindness and enmity to God. They 
have been formed anew, after the pure and perfect 
image of the Lord Jesus Christ. They have passed, 
in their experience, from death unto life. This 
spiritual conversion is the sole commencement of a 
spiritual life. Man at enmity with God, is by divine 
grace subdued and reconciled. Blind and careless, 
he is by the same power awakened and illuminated. 
In bondage to fleshly appetites and lusts, he is made 
free with the liberty of the sons of God. His affec- 
tions fixed upon the world and self, are drawn off to 
God and heavenly things. All this is done for him, 
when the Spirit of God forms him anew for the love 
and service of God. This must be done, equally done 

14 



106 the lord's SIDE. [SER. VII. 

for all. It is not only necessary for those whose ex- 
ternal conduct has been grossly corrupted and de- 
praved, but for the most restrained and estimable 
among men, who have lived unto themselves, and not 
unto Jesus Christ the Lord. No advantages of edu- 
cation, or example, or outward influence, can do away 
in any case, the indispensable requisition of a new 
creation of the soul. God may sanctify and bless a 
thousand different instruments for the accomplishment 
of this important end. He may effect it for different 
individuals in every different period of life between 
infancy and death. But he will not suffer its neces- 
sity to be set aside for any. Man must be brought 
out of darkness into the marvellous light of the Gos- 
pel by this manifest conversion of his heart, or he 
will be an inheritor of the blackness of darkness for- 
ever. When this spiritual birth takes place, in addi- 
tion to the required outward profession, you come 
upon the Lord's side, and all your relations to God 
are changed forever. From the children of wrath, 
you are made the children of God ; and heaven, in all 
the brightness of its glory, opens upon you, as an 
everlasting home, in the stead of that unutterable 
wretchedness and despair, which was, in a state of sin, 
your only prospect beyond the grave. 

Let your character and condition be tried by this 
standard. Who among you have been thus brought 
to a knowledge and love of truth ? You were born 
without distinction, under the curse of a violated law, 
dead in trespasses and sins. Have you been raised 
to a new and spiritual life ? Have you been made to 
experience and to rejoice in the pardoning love of 
God our Saviour? I have no doubt that some of 



SER. VII.] THE LORD'S SIDE. 107 

you can point to a period in their lives, before which 
they felt no care for their souls, no interest in the 
great concerns of the Gospel, no anxiety for the 
things which belong to their peace ; but since which, 
they have been seeking for heavenly treasures, and 
the great object of their life has been, to glorify God, 
and to find a gracious acceptance at his hands. 
Others may be ready to say that they know no pre- 
cise period of any change in their hearts, but they do 
know that it is now their supreme wish, and their 
highest effort, to be delivered from the bondage of 
sin, and to be made conformable to the holy will of 
God. I rest no authority upon the hour, or the in- 
strument of this conversion. Whether God have 
gently inclined the tender shoot, or, with resistless 
power, have uprooted the tree at its maturity, is not 
the important question. But the result must be mani- 
fest; your change of feeling, and purpose, and de- 
sires, must be clear and evident; your love for Christ, 
and your hatred of sin, conscious and distinct ; your 
possession of a spiritual mind, known and experienced; 
and then whatever be the instrument, the work is the 
same, and you are put by it, on the Lord's side for- 
ever. 

2. They who are on the Lord's side in this division 
of the world, make it their object to live by faith in 
his promises and power, and as pilgrims on the earth, 
to become prepared for a better country, that is, an 
heavenly. Nothing more clearly distinguishes a re- 
newed and spiritual mind, than the habitual operation 
of this principle of faith. In the various changes of the 
present world, this spiritual mind exercises a filial 
confidence in God, that all things shall work together 



108 the lord's side. [SER. VII. 

for its good. In the darkest hours of earthly dis- 
couragement, it can repose itself upon the assurance 
of divine protection, and derive from that assurance, 
thankfulness and peace. It looks not at the temporal 
things, which are seen, but at the eternal things, which 
are unseen. Its prevailing tendency is to reach far 
beyond all mortal changes, to a city eternal in the 
heavens, and to rejoice in the hope of the rest which 
remaineth for the people of God. My brethren, how is 
it with you, in regard to this ? Are you, in the exercise 
and enjoyment of this spiritual faith, upon the Lord's 
side ? Are you thus resting upon the Lord Jesus for 
pardon and acceptance ? Are you confiding in his grace 
and presence, to make you conquerors ? Are you en- 
during as seeing him who is invisible ? Are you for- 
getting the things which are behind, the world, with all 
its gains, honours, and pleasures ; and, reaching for- 
ward to the things which are before, the full sanctifi- 
cation of the Holy Ghost, the final enjoyment of the 
glory of God, the blissful presence of the Redeemer ? 
Are you pressing on to the mark of the prize of your 
high calling of God in Christ Jesus ? Are you labour- 
ing to live above this world, and to pass through life 
with your hearts and your hopes in heaven ? Is it a 
subject of experience with you, that there is nothing 
on earth which you desire in comparison with the love 
of God your Saviour ? 

3. They who are on the Lord's side experience a 
daily conflict with the principles of sin. "While men 
are unconverted, this contest is unknown. They have 
often a struggle between appetite and character, be- 
tween immediate and remote interest, between con- 
science and temptation. But in all these cases, the 



SER. VII.] THE LORD'S SIDE. 109 

man himself is on the side of the transgression ; and 
the opposer which is found in character, or con- 
science, or supposed ultimate interest, is an opposer 
to himself. Every thing like contest, then, is between 
himself and some better principle, that would lead 
him in some respects to a better course. He has no 
desire to do the will, or to promote the glory of God, 
and he resists every effort of the Spirit that would 
lead him to it. The converted man has changed 
sides in this contest. Instead of warring against con- 
science, and the Spirit of God, he is now, with them, 
conflicting with the principles and power of sin. He 
sees his unworthiness. He abhors his transgressions. 
With the power of the Holy Spirit on his side, he 
contends against them, and the temptations which 
lead to them. Thus an unceasing warfare is carried 
on within him. He mourns over the discovered in- 
roads of sin, and is determined to resist them, and 
drive them back. He is resolved, that however sin 
may press upon him, it shall not have dominion over 
him. The subject of his prayers, his tears, his 
earnest exertions is, that he may be kept back from 
presumptuous sins, and cleansed from his secret 
faults. If he wander from God, it is not wilfully. 
If he forget him, it is not with an ungrateful design. 
He frequently finds himself tempted to do what he 
would not. But his determined will and purpose are) 
on the side of duty, and the temptation is no longer 
he, but sin that dwelleth in him. The prayer and un- 
ceasing desire of his heart is, that God, by his own 
Spirit, would deliver him wholly from this death. His 
only confidence and hope is, that he who has begun a 
good work in him, will carry it on with increasing 
K 



110 THE LORD'S SIDE. [SER. VII. 

power, even unto the day of the Lord Jesus. Try 
yourselves by this. Are you thus upon the Lord's 
side ? Is sin a burden to your souls ? Is holiness 
of character the object of your desires and labours ? 
Are you contending against the predominance of 
unholy appetites, passions, and pursuits? Are you 
resisting the prevalence of a carnal, worldly mind? 
Do you feel it to be the greatest of all evils to be 
alienated from God ? Is it your daily prayer, that he 
would deliver you from the bondage and danger of 
such a spirit? Does the consciousness of sin, how- 
ever involuntary, fill you with grief? If you have 
no experience of this inward conflict, and are not 
daily, by the Spirit of God dwelling in you, resisting 
the power of sin and death, you cannot be on the 
Lord's side. 

4. They who are on the Lord's side, are going on 
from grace to grace. They are daily gaining victory 
over sin, and drawing more near to the true and holy 
God. The mind of Christ is forming within them. 
The Spirit of Christ is shedding his lovely and holy 
influence over their hearts. The fruits of grace are 
exhibiting themselves with increasing brightness in 
all their conduct. Holiness and pureness of living, 
meekness of spirit, a contented and thankful temper, 
a readiness to do good, and to endure evil, form 
the characteristics of their lives. As years pass by 
with them, they are continually rising above the 
vanities of the world; acting upon the belief, that 
they have here no continuing city ; labouring not for 
the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth 
unto everlasting life ; rejoicing more and more in the 
favour of God reconciled to them through Jesus 



SER. VII.] THE LORD'S SIDE. Ill 

Christ. Life is with them, not only a conflict, but also 
a progress to victory. The grace which as an incor- 
ruptible seed was implanted in their hearts, in the 
hour of their conversion, expands, and grows, and 
matures, till, as the full corn in the ear, it brings forth 
the fruits of holiness, unto everlasting life. From 
the hour in which they were brought over as captives 
upon the Lord's side, and their affections and wills 
were enlisted in his cause, they are promoted in his 
service, and advance every day the more nearly unto 
him. From babes in Christ, they pass through every 
intervening period of a spiritual life, till more than 
perfect men in Christ Jesus, they shine forever, as the 
angels in the presence of God. 

My beloved brethren, are you upon the Lord's 
side? O, decide for yourselves this all-important 
question ! Have you ever given up your habits and 
determinations of rebellion against him, and humbling 
yourselves before him, besought him to lead you into 
captivity by his grace? O, deceive not yourselves in 
a matter of such unspeakable consequence. Take 
the description which has now been given to you of 
the Lord's people, and by it, faithfully try your lives 
and hearts. Rest not in a heedless uncertainty re- 
garding the state of your souls. In God's contro- 
versy with sin, there is no neutral ground. " He that 
is not with me, is against me." Every individual 
before me is either the child or the enemy of God ; 
is either ripening for unfading bliss, or withering for 
a changeless sorrow. 

Can it be, that you feel no concern in the decision 
of such a case as this ? Can you suffer the conviction 
that God is angry with you every day, and yet feel no 



112 THE LORD'S SIDE. [SER. VII. 

anxiety, and make no exertions to obtain your peace 
with him ? Are you in a state of warfare with the 
great King of heaven, and yet refuse while he entreats 
you to return unto him, to give up your opposition to 
his will ? Have you reflected how short is the period 
in which this reconciliation with an offended God must 
take place ? A few more days, and he that shall come, 
will come, and will not tarry. Will you choose the 
despondency and fear of a death without hope ? Will 
you choose to meet a Saviour then, who has been 
driven from you before, by an inexcusable ingratitude ? 
Will you rush unpardoned and accursed, into that pre- 
sence, where the holiest of the holy veil themselves 
with reverence ? Will you reject the comfort of a Re- 
deemer's grace, despise the riches of his forbearance, 
and cast from you the assistance of the one, who 
alone has power to defend you in the hour of trial ? 
Will you give up here, the pleasantness and peace 
which Jesus offers, and the glorious inheritance which 
he has provided, and make your souls, with their 
immortal welfare, a sacrifice to your determined 
rebellion against God? Alas, if this be your de- 
cision, if you are resolved not to be on the Lord's 
side, man can do nothing for you. Your hours of 
regret are coming, when tears of blood will not repair 
your loss, nor anguish unutterable purchase peace. 

But if you will return, come. Lay aside your 
repugnance to the will of God, your contests with 
his authority, your resistance of his Spirit. Let 
nothing detain or discourage you. Offer yourselves 
to God, and in that divine Saviour in whom he has 
laid up the treasures of his grace for you, seek pardon 
and life, and you shall in no wise be cast out. 



SER. VII.] THE LORD'S SIDE. 113 

To those of you who are on the Lord's side, let 
me say, come daily anew to him, with humble, believing 
hearts, and he will strengthen and bless you. Live 
more entirely by faith in him. Suffer him not to be 
wounded by your negligence or worldliness. Crucify 
him not afresh, by going back to the elements of the 
world, and drinking again out of broken cisterns. 
Never forget that there is no concord between Christ 
and Belial, no halfway ground in religious character 
or profession. There can be no giving up one hour 
of conflict for the sake of worldly peace. You must 
bear about with you the marks of the Lord Jesus, 
and never leave it as a doubtful matter to whom you 
belong. O, that you may have grace to live ever 
mindful of your eternal obligations, and always as 
becometh those who are on the Lord's side. 



k2 15 



SERMON VIIL 



THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 



Ezekiel ix. 3 — 6. — And he called to the man clothed with linen, which 
had the writer's inkhom by his side ,• And the Lord said unto him, Go 
through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a 
mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh, and that cry, for all the 
abominations that be done in the midst thereof. And to the others he said 
in my hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite; let not 
your eye spare, neither have ye pity : Slay utterly, old and young, both 
maids, and little children, and women ,• but come not near any man upon 
whom is the mark ; and begin at my sanctuary. 

To understand adequately, both the circumstances 
which are related in this passage, and the application 
which I design to make of them, it will be necessary 
to refer shortly, to the history which the prophet him- 
self gives. 

He was sitting in his house, and the elders of Judah 
were sitting before him, when the hand of the Lord 
God fell upon him. He beheld, and lo, a likeness as 
the appearance of fire. He saw a hand which was 
put forth, and took him by a lock of his head. And 
the Spirit lifted him up between the earth and the 
heaven, and brought him in the visions of God to 
Jerusalem, to the inner door of the temple. And 

114 



SER. VIII.] THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 115 

the glory of the God of Israel was there, according 
to the vision which he had previously seen in the plain. 
There, God displayed to him successive scenes of the 
iniquity of the people; and carried him forward 
through different parts of the temple, and of the city, 
to witness the increasing abominations which were 
committed by various classes of the inhabitants of Je- 
rusalem. The whole city seemed to him to be filled 
with crime. Even the sanctuary of the holy God, 
was desecrated by the polluting devices of wicked men. 
He beheld seventy of the ancients of the house of 
Israel, each provided with a censer, offering a thick 
cloud of incense to every form of creeping things, 
and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house 
of Israel, which were portrayed upon the wall round 
about, saying to each other, "the Lord seeth us not, 
and the Lord hath forsaken the earth." He saw the 
women engaged in all the superstitions of their idol 
worship ; and the men even between the porch and 
the altar of the temple, with their backs to the temple 
of the Lord, and their faces toward the east, worship- 
ping the sun. 

When all these varied scenes of guilt had been ex- 
hibited to him, the Lord said unto him, " Hast thou 
seen this, O son of man ? Is it a light thing to the 
house of Judah, that they commit the abominations 
which they commit here ? For they have filled the 
land with violence, and have returned to provoke me 
to anger ; and lo, they put the branch to their nose. 
Therefore will I also deal in fury ; mine eye shall not 
spare, neither will I have pity ; and though they cry 
in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear 
them." 



116 THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. [SER. VIII. 

The Lord then proceeded to show him the fulfil- 
ment of this solemn denunciation. " He cried in 
mine ears," says the prophet, "with a loud voice, 
* cause them that have charge over the city, to draw 
near, even every man with his destroying weapon in 
his hand.' And behold, six men came from the way 
of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and 
every man with a slaughter weapon in his hand ; and 
one man among them was clothed with linen with a 
writer's inkhorn by his side ; and they went in and 
stood beside the brazen altar. And the glory of the 
God of Israel was gone up from the cherub where- 
upon it was, to the threshold of the house." The 
Lord forsook a sanctuary which had been so polluted 
by man's transgression, and stood at the door of the 
temple, to direct the work of separation and punish- 
ment among the people, which he had determined 
now to accomplish. He had come forth in his anger, 
to take vengeance on the iniquities of men, and to 
deal with them in his fury, for all the abominations 
which they had committed, and for the hardness and 
impenitent heart with which they defended themselves 
in them. 

But the inhabitants of Jerusalem had not all thus 
forsaken or provoked him. The Lord had reserved 
to himself, as in the time of Elijah, a remnant who 
had not bowed the knee to the pernicious influence 
of a majority; who had dared to be "faithful found 
among the faithless." Before the work of determined 
destruction could commence, he must take forth the 
precious from among the vile. They had manifested 
their zeal for his honour, and their love for his ser- 
vice, to the utmost of their power. And though they 



SER. VIII.] THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 117 

had not been able to rule the characters, or to limit 
the wickedness of the residue of men, they should 
certainly be protected amidst their dangers, and 
rescued from their destruction. The prophet says 
" he called to the man clothed with linen, which had 
the writer's inkhorn by his side ; and the Lord said 
unto him, ' go through the midst of the city, through 
the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the fore- 
heads of the men that sigh, and that cry, for all the 
abominations that be done in the midst thereof.' ' 
Thus were the servants of God to be distinguished. 
They had done all that they could do, to maintain 
the authority of God among the people. And when 
all their efforts were vain, they still sighed and cried 
over abominations which they could not prevent. In 
the spirit of David, rivers of water ran down their 
eyes, because men kept not the divine law. Like Je- 
remiah, when men would not hear, their souls wept in 
secret places, for their pride. But even this the Lord 
hearkened and heard ; and a book of remembrance 
was written before him, for them that feared the Lord, 
and that thought upon his name. And now, when 
sudden destruction was coming upon ungodly men, 
which they could not escape, these faithful servants 
of God, should be infallibly preserved. As the Israel- 
ites were distinguished in Egypt by the blood of the 
lamb, and the destroying angels were to pass over 
every house on which there was seen the lamb's 
blood, so these were now to be marked by divine ap- 
pointment, that they might be secure from evil. 

When this command was obeyed, the Lord said to 
the others, the six men who had the slaughter weapons 
in their hands, " Go ye after him through the city, 



118 THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. [SER. VIII. 

and smite ; let not your eye spare, neither have ye 
pity; slay utterly, old and young, "both maids, and 
little children, and women; but come not near any 
man upon whom is the mark : and begin at my sanc- 
tuary." This dreadful order was immediately exe- 
cuted. The destroying angels began at the brazen 
altar where they stood, with the ancient men, who 
were before the house. No place or circumstances 
were to be a protection for impenitent guilt. God 
said unto the executors of his wrath, " defile the 
house, and fill the courts with the slain;" and then, 
" go ye forth." " And they went forth, and slew in 
the city." 

" And it came to pass," says the prophet, " while 
they were slaying them, and I w T as left, that I fell 
upon my face, and said, Ah, Lord God ! wilt thou 
destroy all the residue of Israel, in thy pouring out of 
thy fury upon Jerusalem? Then said he unto me, 
The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is ex- 
ceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the 
city full of perverseness ; for they say, ' the Lord 
hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not.' 
And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither 
will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon 
their head. And behold the man clothed with linen, 
which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the mat- 
ter, saying, 'I have done as thou hast commanded 
me.'" 

My brethren, "whatsoever things were written 
aforetime, were written for our admonition." And 
the propriety of the extension of this instructive pas- 
sage of Scripture, in an application to our own time 
and circumstances, is so manifest, that there is hardly 



SER. VIII.] THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 119 

required of me any thing more than a conclusion of 
solemn and awakening exhortation, to the various 
classes of those who hear me, and who may he in- 
cluded in it. As it is a history of facts which are 
past, it refers to those whom it describes by name. 
But as it is an exemplary instance of the dealings of 
Almighty God with sinful men, it is an illustration of 
facts which are to come, in reference to ourselves. 
May the Lord, the Spirit, be mercifully pleased to 
make us wise in its consideration, and faithful in its 
improvement, for ourselves. 

The simple general subject Which the text offers to 
our notice, is an exhibition of the people of god, 

PROTECTED IN THE DESTRUCTION OF A WORLD OF 

the ungodly. Upon this important subject, I re- 
mark first, 

I. That God has a people of his own in a world 
of sinners, who feel for his honour, and desire to sus- 
tain his authority. This is at all times a most im- 
portant and precious fact. It never was more im- 
portant than it is in our day. God has such a people, 
Whatever may be the amount of human iniquity, 
however overspreading and fearful, the surrounding 
abominations of mankind, there is still a remnant, 
upon whom the Lord looks with favour. They are 
men who tremble at his word, and who, as they are 
mutually acquainted, speak often one to another. 
These are the salt of the earth; the preservation of 
men. Set apart by the Lord, for himself; made by 
the Holy Spirit, new creatures in Christ Jesus ; stand- 
ing with his robe of righteousness, complete in him ; 
instant in prayer ; fruitful in holiness ; and preferring 
the reproach of Christ, to the treasures of the world; 



120 THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. [SER. VIII, 

they are at once, the ornament and the defence of 
mankind. And it imports an amazing amount of cor- 
ruption and guilt in a land, when it is proclaimed, that 
such men can but deliver their own souls, and shall 
be no longer the instruments to convey divine bless- 
ings to others. 

That God has such a people in our day, a seed of 
grace still remaining among us, is an assurance of un- 
speakable comfort. The death of the last servant of 
God among a people, fills up their history ; completes 
the purpose of God, and their trial; and they who 
have rejected his grace, to remain finally in sin, are 
rejected by him, as unjust, to remain unjust still. 
While we look abroad upon the abominations which 
encompass us in this day of evil, this is our comfort 
in the house of our affliction. There is still salt in the 
earth. The L ord has not left himself without witnesses. 
There are yet in the land many precious, praying sons 
of Sion, comparable unto fine gold, each one of whom, 
in the Lord's esteem, is as the apple of an eye. 

We behold the misrule of intemperate lusts driving 
in scathing fire, over every thing which is honourable 
to the character of man, and indispensable to the 
good order of society; literally, death on the pale 
horse, and hell following; we behold drunkenness 
and licentiousness writhing like insatiable serpents 
through the land, and feeding daily upon more vic- 
tims, than the crudest superstition on the earth has 
ever demanded ; we see impiety with an unblushing 
front, setting her polluting foot upon all that is sacred 
in the institutions of the Gospel, trampling down the 
Bible and the Sabbath, sounding abroad with a 
trumpet her blasphemies against God, while infidelity 



SER. VIII.] THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 121 

stands by, and claps her hands in triumph, and shouts 
encouragement as if it were the path of glory ; and 
the order, and the interests, and the happiness of man, 
fair flowers that bloom only beneath the favour of the 
Most High, all crushed into the dust behind, like the 
hard-trodden surface of a battle field. These are 
the abominations of men around us ; so overspread- 
ing, that even the wise men of this world, who have 
connived at the whole, and grown rich with its gains, 
begin to tremble amidst the results of their own allow- 
ances, for the security of their own property and life. 

And where, amidst all this anarchy and noise, are 
the people of the living God ? Has the whole family 
of man gone after the idols of sin ? Is there nothing 
left to show what man under a better dominion might 
become ? Is there no green spot in the desert, as a 
sample of what blooms and flourishes in other climes ? 
O, yes, my brethren, thanks be to God, he has left us 
a remnant, and he knoweth them that are his. They 
are described in our text. They sigh and cry for the 
abominations that are done. In the secrecy of the 
closet, amidst the little social circle for prayer, in 
the house of God, the eye of the Lord still sees 
them ; perhaps unknown and unnoticed by the world ; 
and he says of each of them, as if turning off his at- 
tention from apparently greater objects, to mark them 
the more intently, " upon this man will I look, even 
the man who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and 
trembleth at my word." 

These people of God have not sighed in listless 

idleness, or wept tears of fearful indolence, without 

an effort to stop the progress of man's iniquity. No. 

They are those who have first done all in active effort 

L 16 



122 THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. [SER. VIII. 

which they could do, to restrain the wickedness of 
others ; and who now, while they are mourning for 
their sins, are bearing their testimony with fidelity 
against them. They are not partakers of other men's 
sins. They do not join with them in unnecessary 
disturbances of the holy rest of the Sabbath, nor 
legalize by even partial indulgence in intoxicating 
drinks, that drunkenness wherein is excess. They 
withhold their hands from the taking of bribes. They 
will not gain their emolument from that which is made 
the instrument of dishonour to God and ruin to man. 
To them the wealth which is the price of blood, the 
gain in any degree of breaking God's law, is an ac- 
cursed thing. They will not touch it. They do not 
shrink from sight behind a multitude, nor attempt to 
cover their responsibility with the plea, that they are 
single amidst the many, and that their influence is 
therefore, nothing. They stand out openly for God, 
and for the truth of God, though unsupported by hu- 
man power, and discouraged by all the influence of 
man. And if they can do nothing by active effort, 
they still mourn over evils which they cannot cure. 
They cannot feel or profess indifference to the con- 
duct and condition of mankind. Jealous for the 
honour of God, happy in the acceptance of a Saviour, 
knowing the comforts of the Holy Ghost, believing 
the revealed responsibility and destiny of sinful men, 
they long to the end of life, for the salvation of the 
ungodly ; and sigh and cry unto God, while they live, 
over a destruction in which they have no participa- 
tion, and which men bring wholly upon themselves. 
Such a people God has in the midst of a world of 
sinners. I remark secondly, 



SER. VIII.] THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 123 

II. This people are entirely protected in the de- 
struction which God brings upon the ungodly. 

" Go," says the Lord in our text, " set a mark 
upon the foreheads of the men that sigh, and that cry, 
for all the abominations that are done in the midst 
thereof;" a mark which shall be easily discerned ; a 
mark by which they shall be known without hesita- 
tion or doubt. What this mark was in this particular 
case, it matters not for us. The fact is all that we need. 
These servants of God were thus marked. Then 
says God to the destroyers, " Go through and smite ; 
but come not near any man upon whom is the mark." 

Thus the people of God are marked and sealed 
amidst the world in which they dwell; and God 
spares them in the hour of punishment, as a man 
spareth his own son that serveth him. It is not ex- 
hibited as a mark for man's discernment, though open 
as it was upon the forehead, it need not be concealed 
from man. But it was to guide the instruments of 
death; to preserve the people of God from the de- 
stroying weapons ; and to constitute the evidence of 
his acceptance of them, and of their title to his eternal 
favour. Amidst surrounding ungodliness, the secret 
of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will 
hide them in his tabernacle, until the danger be over- 
past. They are marked by his infallible determina- 
tion, and are sealed by his Spirit unto the day of re- 
demption. 

They are marked in their conversion unto himself, 
having been begotten again of an incorruptible seed, 
of the word of God, by the Holy Ghost; and they 
are living and walking in the Spirit. They are 
marked by their increasing separation through the 



124 THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. [SER. VIII. 

Spirit, from the defilements of sin, and their with- 
drawal from the secret and the assembly of the un- 
godly. They are marked by the manifest fruits of 
the Spirit, the holy graces which spring from his 
operations within the heart, exhibiting them as living 
to God, and for God, among men, and seeking in the 
meekness of wisdom, to bring all men back to him. 
They are marked by the prayers which ascend night 
and day from their hearts to heaven, cries which come 
into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, bringing down 
his blessings upon sinful men, and turning away his 
anger from them. They are marked in all the ap- 
pointed ordinances of his house, and seek in all 
things, to know what he would have them to do. 
They will be found abiding in the communion of his 
church ; walking in the light of his word ; and 
honouring him in their glad conformity to all his in- 
stitutions among men ; rejoicing there to dwell where 
the Lord hath established his blessing, even life for- 
evermore. Thus God knows, and makes known his 
people ; not by their assertion of privileges, and pro- 
fessed subjection to his will alone ; but by the mani- 
fest and undisputed exhibition of that holiness of 
character which is the earnest of the purchased in- 
heritance, and without which no man shall see the 
Lord. 

Thus marked, they are entirely protected in the 
hour of danger. When the Lord cometh out of his 
place, to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their 
iniquity, he turneth his hand upon these little ones, 
and shelters them in the cleft of the rock, from the 
sorrows which compass the sinner forever. It is not 
from earthly troubles that they are protected. These 



SER. VIII. J THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 125 

form no discrimination of character ; nor are they the 
designed punishments for human sin. The genera- 
tion of God's children have often, in this respect, a 
measure of a full cup poured out for them. But 
their sufferings are precious and indispensable bless- 
ings ; and they are the happier and the holier in heaven, 
for all which they have been required to endure upon 
the earth. 

But when God, in his justice, punishes the ungodly, 
and makes his inquisition for guilt, the destroying 
angel comes not near a man upon him whom is the 
blood of the Lamb. In the temporal visitations which 
he makes for sin, when kingdoms and communities 
are desolated and overthrown for their iniquity, God 
selects his people, and shields them completely from 
that result of mortal death which sin produces ; and 
makes the pestilence, or the earthquake, or the confla- 
gration, the chariot which is to bear them up to glory. 
It becomes a blessing to them, and a welcome mes- 
senger from God to their souls. Their minds are 
kept in perfect peace, because they are stayed upon 
him. And in the scenes of a world to come, when 
the wickedness of the ungodly has come to a per- 
petual end, he will establish the just. No despairing 
anguish shall arrest them upon the bed of death. No 
bitiDg remorse shall attend them to the presence of 
an heart-searching God. No pang of unpardoned 
guilt shall fester in their bosom. No banishment 
from the Most High shall clothe their souls with 
darkness. No angry spirits shall vex them on to 
madness. No scorching flames shall feed upon a 
soul that cannot die. God says to all the messengers 
and instruments of wrath, " Come not near any man 

12 



126 THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. [SER. VIII. 

upon whom is the mark;" and the law stands off, and 
conscience is silenced, and guilt hides its head, and 
Satan shrinks away. Known by the mark of grace — 
grace which loved them, bought them, found them, 
brought them back, kept them, and crowned them — 
they stand before God, sanctified and secured. Happy 
in their eternal enjoyments. Happy in all their earthly 
sorrows. Happy, peculiarly in this, that they sighed 
and cried for the abominations of men, in their zeal 
for the honour of the Lord of hosts. 

The text leads me to remark thirdly, 

III. While the people of God are thus distin- 
guished and protected, the destruction of the ungodly 
will be entire. Their abominations long forborne 
with, are at last brought into judgment ; and tribula- 
tion and anguish cometh upon every soul of man that 
doeth evil. Amidst the overspreading of sin around 
us, we might almost be tempted unbelievingly to say, 
" the Lord seeth not." The wicked are often they 
who seem the most to prosper in the earth. But faith 
assures as that the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth ; 
and though sentence against an evil work be not exe- 
cuted speedily, nothing is forgotten before him, and 
he will bring every secret thing into judgment, and 
fully repay them that hate him. The punishment 
which is described with so much minuteness in our 
text, is a full illustration of his final dealings with the 
ungodly. 

Their destruction will be unsparing and without 
mercy. " Go ye after him, and smite ; let not your 
eye spare, neither have ye pity." The hour for mer- 
ciful intercession will have passed by. Long has 
God endeavoured to lead them to repentance ; long has 



SER. VIII.] THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 127 

the Saviour stood waiting to receive them ; long has 
the divine Spirit exerted himself to bring them back 
to Christ. And while all this was passing, they might 
have found a refuge in the Gospel, and have gained 
eternal life. But now the dispensation of mercy has 
been closed, and they are left, as they have chosen to 
be left, to the unbending operation of law. They are 
to stand upon their own ground. Their iniquities 
start up, a resuscitated multitude, to testify against 
them. Guilt, like a millstone around their necks, 
hangs upon their souls. And unmitigated wrath, fol- 
lowing in the train of unerring justice, seizes upon 
them, as its portion forever. No circumstance alle- 
viates or lessens the ruin which sin has brought upon 
them. No eye pities, and no arm interposes for their 
good. They die without mercy. They perish with- 
out redemption. They are destroyed forever. 

Their destruction will be an universal one. None 
who bear the burden of unpardoned sin can in any 
wise escape. " Slay utterly, old and young, both 
maids, and little children, and women." All who 
have partaken in the abominations of sin, must share 
also in the misery which impenitent sin entails. No 
age, or character, or circumstances, among sinners, 
who are alike unconverted, can be urged in arrest of 
judgment, or be allowed to turn aside the punishment 
of transgression. The daring violator of holy things, 
the man who has sinned with determination and 
power in the world, shall find no defence against the 
destroying weapon of the Most High. The secret, 
gilded transgressor, who was known in his iniquities 
to none but himself and God, shall be dragged from 
his hiding-place, and be made to feel the holy, search- 



128 THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. [SER. VIII. 

ing power of the wrath of God. No veneration shall 
be paid to aged guilt, nor any tenderness be indulged 
to more youthful transgression. Families who are 
now entailing the example and the influence of irre- 
ligion and vice upon their posterity, shall find that 
they have sent down with it a scorching stream of 
vengeance and suffering. God will not be mocked. 
And whatever softening appellations men may give to 
their iniquities, when God lays judgment to the line, 
and righteousness to the plummet, all will vanish and 
be forgotten. Sin will stand out in its own naked- 
ness, and will eat into the souls of ungodly men, as it 
were fire. 

This destruction will begin with those who are 
most highly favoured with religious privileges. "Begin 
at my sanctuary," says the Lord to the angels of de- 
struction. No circumstance can extenuate impeni- 
tent guilt. But there are many to aggravate the 
enormities of transgression. They who have sinned 
under the law, shall be judged by the law, is the prin- 
ciple of the Scriptures. They who know the Lord's 
will, and do commit things worthy of stripes, shall be 
beaten with many stripes. " Judgment must begin 
at the house of God," says the apostle Peter, as if in 
reference to this very passage of our text. Neither 
the pulpit nor the sanctuary ; neither profession nor 
self-complacency shall afford protection to the sin- 
ner's soul. O, how alarming to the man who covers 
actual iniquity with the garment of piety in profes- 
sion ; to the man who has enriched himself by minis- 
tering ruin to others ; to the man who may number 
his gains and honours by the wretched souls he has 
led forward to eternal despair; and yet professes 



SER. VIII.] THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 129 

himself to have done no harm ; is the command of Al- 
mighty God, " Begin at my sanctuary !" There is 
no respect of persons before the tribunal of the living 
God. The hypocrite shall be unveiled; the false 
professor shall be exhibited as he is ; the self-right- 
eous man shall be held up to view in his own deformi- 
ties ; and unrepented sin shall every where see the 
destroying weapon, with an irreversible energy, coming 
upon itself. 

This destruction shall spare only those who have 
been marked. " Come not near any man upon whom 
is the mark." An unconverted soul is guilty in the 
mere fact, that it is an unconverted soul. " All who 
are not written in the Lamb's book of life, shall be 
cast into the lake of fire." Amidst the privileges 
which men have enjoyed, they are without excuse in 
their sins. And when God has numbered up all his 
people ; and received and blessed all who would re- 
turn to him, the residue are left to perish in their 
guilt. O, my brethren, it has been long your duty to 
return unitedly to God, and to gain his indelible mark 
of grace, in the full restoration of your souls to him, 
by humbly coming to the Lord Jesus for pardon and 
righteousness. That any of you are without the 
Lamb's mark, is wholly upon your own responsibility. 
None other can bear the blame. But being so, you 
must look forward with certainty to the fact, that 
destruction awaits the unrenewed soul. The man 
who is not, by his own choice and act, spiritually and 
wholly, on the side of Jesus, is certainly opposed to 
him ; and must reap the harvest which he has sown 
for himself. 

17 



130 THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. [SER. VIII. 

In the midst of this unsparing, universal destruc- 
tion of all who have not the Saviour's mark, where 
will my present hearers stand ? My brethren, what 
side have you taken in God's great controversy with 
sin, and sinful men? Where among you, are the 
men who sigh and cry for the abominations which 
they see? who are zealous for the glory of the Lord 
of hosts ? O, allow not judgment to come upon you 
without mercy; nor the blessings of the glorious 
Gospel to testify against your souls ! See to it, that 
you are bearing about with you, the marks of the 
Lord Jesus Christ; that you have a conscious, as- 
sured interest in his perfect righteousness ; that you 
may stand with him in white among his people, when 
he cometh to judge the earth ; rescued from his dis- 
pleasure, and partakers of his glory. Make clear 
and evident your title in him, to the kingdom which 
he has prepared ; and be sure, that you fall not into 
the hands of the living God, with the fearful, eternal 
burden of unpardoned guilt upon your souls. 



SERMON IX, 



THE RESCUED BRAND. 



Zechariaii iii. 2. — Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? 

This is the divine description of a justified and 
converted man. It is contained in a few words, but 
they are words of an exceedingly comprehensive im- 
port. They present at once to our view, the sinner's 
worthless character by nature, his dangerous and 
dreadful condition while in this natural state, and the 
fulness of unmerited grace and love of which he has 
been made the subject. It is under this view of its 
meaning, that I present the text to your consideration. 

The Lord had sent his angel to instruct the prophet 
in his captivity, by many figurative representations in 
regard to his dispensations with his people. The en- 
couragements and consolations which were given to 
him for them, are not to be limited in their applica- 
tion to the Jewish nation, then on the eve of their 
return from Babylon, but belong also to the people 
of God in every age, and in every land. In the vision 
from which the words of our text are selected, the 
prophet says, " he showed me Joshua, the high priest, 

131 



132 THE RESCUED BRAND. [SER. IX. 

standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan 
standing at his right hand to resist him. And the 
Lo%d said unto Satan, the Lord rebuke thee, O Sa- 
tan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem, re- 
buke thee ; is not this a brand plucked out of the 
fire ? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, 
and stood before the angel. And he answered, and 
spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take 
away the filthy garments from him. And unto him 
he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass 
from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of rai- 
ment. And I said, Let them set a fair mitre on his 
head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and 
clothed him with garments. And the angel of the 
Lord protested unto Joshua, saying, Thus saith the 
Lord of hosts, If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if 
thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge 
my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will 
give thee places to walk among these that stand by. 
Hear now, O Joshua, the high priest, thou and thy 
fellows that sit before thee ; for they are men won- 
dered at." Joshua was here the representative of 
all the true people of God. Like him, they are all 
" brands plucked out of the fire." Against them all, 
the same power of Satan is employed to resist them. 
In behalf of them all, the same boundless grace is 
exercised on the part of the Lord God. 

The angel of the Lord, or Jehovah- Angel, before 
whom Joshua stood, is the great Mediator between 
God and man, who is frequently presented to us under 
this title, in the Old Testament, and who is called in 
this passage, according to the uniform habit of the 
Scriptures, both Jehovah-Angel, and Jehovah simply. 



SER. IX.] THE RESCUED BRAND. 133 

This glorious Mediator, the Jehovah who has heen 
sent as a messenger to man, is our righteous Advo- 
cate with God. He opposes and destroys, by his in- 
tercession, the resistance of Satan to our acceptance 
with him. He plucks us by his Spirit, as brands out 
of the fire of merited condemnation and punishment. 
He takes away the filthy garments of sin in its guilt, 
by his atonement; and in its corruption, by his sancti- 
fying Spirit. He causes the iniquity of his people to 
pass from them, having himself borne its penalty for 
them. He clothes them in his own righteousness im- 
puted unto them, with a change of pure, heavenly, 
and imperishable raiment. He urges in his opposi- 
tion to the great adversary of man, the accuser of his 
saints, the arguments which arise from the fulness of 
divine grace and power. The free mercy of God, as 
exhibited in plucking the brand out of the fire, and in 
choosing his people for his own habitation, furnishes 
his rebuke of the malicious enemy; "the Lord rebuke 
thee, O Satan ; even the Lord that hath chosen Je- 
rusalem, rebuke thee ; is not this a brand plucked out 
of the fire?" 

Thus the Mediator silenced the accusations of the 
enemy, and condemned the tongue which rose in 
judgment against his servant ; and then he manifested 
the power of his grace, in converting, sanctifying, and 
saving his accused disciple. " He answered, and 
spake to those who stood before him," the angels 
who are sent out as ministering spirits to the heirs of 
salvation, " take away the filthy garments from him." 
And then to the penitent and thankful believer before 
him, he said, in terms of most encouraging compas- 
sion, "behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass 
M 



134 THE RESCUED BRAND. [SER. IX. 

from thee, and I will clothe thee with a change of rai- 
ment ; and if thou wilt walk in my ways, and keep 
my charge, I will give thee a place to walk among 
these that stand by." 

How striking and admirable is the illustration 
which is here presented of the grace of God in the 
salvation of sinful men ! How significant is the de- 
scription which is given of the character and condi- 
tion of those who have obtained his mercy, and are 
set forth as patterns of divine long-suffering ! "Is 
not this a brand plucked out of the fire?" This 
rescued brand furnishes our subject for discourse. 

I. How unprofitable and worthless in itself! A 
brand ! useless for any purposes of man; having no 
value annexed to it in his estimation. Is not every 
unrenewed sinner precisely this in the sight of God ? 
If he be rescued from the punishment which his sins 
deserve, it is not for any worth which is seen in him, 
or for any benefit which can subsequently arise 
from him. As a fallen creature, man cannot be pro- 
fitable unto God. In the pure and discriminating eye 
of his Almighty Maker, he is a broken vessel, wherein 
is no pleasure. He is clothed in the hateful garments 
of repeated and long continued guilt. From the head 
to the foot, he is a poor, diseased, and ruined being, 
without any claim upon the mercy of his God. 

It is true that no creature can ever render any 
thing to the Creator, which shall merit a continuance 
of blessings bestowed by him. The highest heavenly 
being has received from God's free gift, the power to 
obey him; and is as much bound to exercise that 
power to the uttermost in his service, as the meanest 
creature upon the earth. He lives upon the kindness 



SER. IX.] THE RESCUED BRAND. 135 

of the Almighty, and by that he is upheld continually. 
The Creator may delight in his own image impressed 
upon the work of his hands ; but that creature, though 
perfect and without transgression, can render back 
nothing which shall be a claim upon God. But how 
completely unprofitable and worthless is sinful and 
polluted man ! Depraved in voluntary rebellion, 
ruined by continued guilt, what ground has he for 
claim, even upon the compassion of his Maker ? His 
very birth constituted him a child of wrath. Sin has 
perverted and corrupted him from the beginning of 
his life. He has followed the inherent propensities 
of his polluted nature, through every period of his 
life. He has thus accumulated upon his soul, a bur- 
den of wrath which he cannot bear. 

God, indeed, beholds him with pity, cast out as he 
is, and perishing in his blood. He has compassion 
upon him, though so ruined and unprofitable. From 
the fulness of his grace, which has respect to his 
own glory alone, and regards not the worthiness of 
the object upon which it is exercised, which is as 
much beyond the comprehension of man, as it is be- 
yond his desert, he plucks the brand from the burn- 
ing, and transforms the child of wrath into a child of 
God. 

This affecting illustration of man's unworthiness, 
is of universal application. We are all, by nature, 
these worthless brands. In how many instances we 
have been personally rescued from merited destruc- 
tion, God only knows. O, that you might all be 
made to feel the truth of this representation of your 
sinful character; and to look back upon the guilty 
lives which you have passed without God in the 



136 THE RESCUED BRAND. [SER. IX. 

world, with deep humiliation and sorrow ! You can 
have no hope until you do feel this ; until you have 
cast out of your minds, every vain idea of human 
merit or excellence ; until you have been humbled 
under the conviction of the weight of your actual 
sins ; until you are thus willing to lay yourselves in 
the dust, at the feet of Jesus, the great Mediator for 
man, to supplicate the bestowal of his unmerited 
mercy and kindness, relinquishing all selfish hope and 
confidence, and thankfully receiving the salvation of 
your souls, as the free gift of God through the right- 
eousness of his Son, to the lost and perishing. 

II. Consider this brand again. How dangerous 
was the condition in which it was found ! The fire 
from which it was plucked, has not reference, in its 
application to the sinner's condition, to the many pre- 
sent trials and sorrows which come to him as the re- 
sult of his transgression, so much as to those ever- 
lasting burnings which are his heritage in a world of 
recompense. All earthly woes are temporary. These 
sorrows are unchangeable and eternal. Time may 
often repair the injuries which earthly sufferings pro- 
duce. Eternity will not renew the soul which has 
been destroyed under the condemnation of sin. No 
fears of man, however awakened his conscience may 
become, can magnify the dangers and miseries which 
attend this everlasting banishment from God. 

Under this tremendous load, the unconverted sin- 
ner lies, condemned and perishing, as a brand burn- 
ing in the fire. The wrath of God abideth on him. 
In every passing moment of his life, there is but a 
step between him and that death which will bring 
down this wrath upon him to the uttermost. He has 



SER. IX.] THE RESCUED BRAND. 137 

made himself an enemy to God by wicked works. 
He has heaped curses, like coals of fire, upon his own 
head, by continued transgression* He has wrapped 
the poisoned garment of condemnation around his 
own soul, by his choice of a state of separation 
from God. And yet amidst all these fearful dangers 
which surround him, he flatters himself with the 
hope, that though he never turn to God, he shall have 
peace in his latter end. 

O, my brethren, could the unconverted portion of 
my present hearers but have a view of their sinful 
character and ruined state, as they are beheld by the 
eye of the Almighty; could they behold the wages 
which the guilt of their own transgressions is preparing 
for them ; how soon would it stain the pride of their 
glory, sour all the pleasures which disobedience can 
give, and kindle up the fires of deep remorse and 
bitter anxiety in their breasts ! But, alas, ungodly 
men see nothing of their true characters, or of their 
real condition ; and apprehend nothing of the dangers 
which actually surround them. They are pressing 
forward, heedless amidst a thousand warnings, plant- 
ing every footstep upon some concealed entrance to a 
world of woe, and yet as unconcerned in regard to 
the alarming fact, that they are condemned already, 
as full of confidence in the safe result of their mad 
experiment, as if the shining light of heaven were 
certainly and openly leading them on to glory. They 
walk in the blindness of their inexperienced and 
unbelieving hearts, alienated from the life of God, 
through the ignorance that is in them. 

None can truly appreciate the dangers of an un- 
converted soul, but they who have been plucked from 
M 2 18 



138 THE RESCUED BRAND. [SER. IX. 

the fires in which it is still consuming. If you have 
been with Jonah in the midst of the seas ; if you 
have felt the burden of a guilty conscience, charged 
with treading under your feet God's dear Son ; if 
you have found yourselves struggling in the very 
mouth of the pit, without the power or the hope of 
restoration; if you have felt a deep conviction of 
God's just anger against your sins ; you know some- 
thing of the condition of the man who is ruined by 
transgression, a brand still burning in the fire. No 
representations of the danger of this condition are 
then beyond your own conviction of the fact; no 
warnings appear to you too solemn, no exhortations 
seem to be too earnest, no expressions too strong, 
which are addressed to sinners, to persuade them to 
flee from the wrath to come. How wonderful is that 
grace and power, which can rescue such brands from 
such burnings ! which can bring men from these fear- 
ful consequences of their own guilt, to the glorious 
liberty and blessedness of the family of God ! 

III. Consider this brand again. How glorious and 
worthy of praise, is that divine power which can 
pluck it from the fire, and transform it into an eternal 
monument of love, and a vessel of everlasting holi- 
ness ! In the midst of the ruin of the world, and the 
guilt of man, God proposes to the ungodly a reconci- 
liation to himself. He was in Christ reconciling the 
world unto himself. But after he makes his gracious 
proposition, men still draw back, and refuse the mercy 
which is so abundantly provided. The only begotten 
Son of God is set up as the great Mediator for their 
souls, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom 
and love. But sinners will not come unto him, that 



SER. IX.] THE RESCUED BRAND. 139 

they may have life. Here then, is displayed the 
power and plans of Almighty grace. The Holy Spirit 
comes with his divine energy ; reveals to the sinner 
his awful guilt ; gives him a godly sorrow for his sin ; 
takes away his rebellious dispositions; and inclines 
his will, long perverted by transgression, to embrace 
and obey the glorified Saviour. He takes away from 
him the polluted garments in which he has been 
clothed ; destroys his spirit of hostility to God ; 
covers him with the garments of salvation, and the 
robe of righteousness; and restores him, finally, to 
the Lord who has bought him with a price. God 
thus passes by the sinner's guilt, and freely bestows 
upon him, the ability to obey, and to glorify him. He 
does not look to the worthiness of the sinner, nor to 
his capacity to serve him, for he does not need him. 
But, moved by his own purposes of love, according 
to the riches of his mercy, he visits him when he is 
dead in sin, rescues him from destruction and despair, 
and owns him as one of his jewels — his eternal pos- 
session. 

If our attention should be turned only to the un- 
worthiness of sinful man, or to the danger in which 
his guilt has placed him, we might well ask, who 
can cause this wilderness to blossom as the rose, 
or make the tongue of the dumb to sing ? Certainly 
no created power can do it ; no freedom of the human 
will ; no remnant of strength in the depraved heart 
of man. But God can say to the mountain of human 
guilt, that before his transforming, conquering spirit, 
it shall become a plain. He can change the brand 
into a living stone, and build it up in that everlasting 
temple, which is enlightened by the presence and 



140 THE RESCUED BRAND. [SER. IX. 

glory of the Lamb. He would have us despair under 
no accumulation of guilt. He would have us never 
doubt, that the dead may hear the voice of the Son 
of God, and live. He has laid help on one mighty to 
save. Whatever danger there is in the sin of man, 
there is a corresponding sufficient antidote in the 
obedience and power of Christ. His unsearchable 
riches of grace supply our deep poverty. His infi- 
nite power is made perfect in our weakness. Though 
the sinner's condition be one of entire ruin, the pro- 
visions of Gospel grace are more than adequate 
for all his wants. Wherein his adversaries are lofty, 
God is higher than they. Until the inestimable blood 
of the Lamb shall become without value, and the 
perfect righteousness of the great High Priest be 
found defective, and the accuser transcend the Advo- 
cate in power, and grace which is unsearchable be- 
come exhausted, no unworthiness, no dangers of sin- 
ful men, shall interpose an insuperable obstacle to the 
provisions of divine redemption, or the power of 
God's new creating Spirit. 

IV. Consider this rescued brand again. How in- 
finite is the extent of that love, of which it is the ob- 
ject ! While we admire the grace which can give a 
brightness above the sun to a thing so unprofitable, 
we may equally adore the compassion which is will- 
ing to exert itself upon an object so degraded and 
low. The foundation of all our hope is, that God's 
love is infinite and free. We do not, we cannot first 
give to him, that he may render to us again. We 
turn to him, we are converted and healed, not because 
he sees any thing in us which is desirable or useful in 
his estimation ; but as the mere effect of his absolute 



SER. IX.] THE RESCUED BRAND. 141 

and unsearchable mercy. We learn to love him be- 
cause he first loved us. Should God ever measure 
his love to man, by man's fruitfulness to him, how 
wretched would be our prospect! how entire our 
want of a foundation for hope ! We might reasonably 
stumble at the very threshold of his requisitions, and 
sit down, at once, the victims, of final despair. The 
glorious prospect which is held out in his word, we 
could see indeed. The city, the temple, the paradise 
of God might exhibit to us all their attractions and all 
their worth ; but there would be the sad conviction 
left upon our minds, that they were beyond our reach. 
The invitations and promises of God would but mock 
our weakness and our wants, for this gulf of human 
unworthiness and impotency would remain impassable 
forever. 

How full of encouragement and comfort is the re- 
flection, that God is willing to exercise his almighty 
power in our behalf! His love can pardon the greatest 
and the most multiplied transgressions. He who 
spared not his own Son, but freely delivered him up 
for us all, will with him also, freely give us all things. 
What then though man be ruined and an outcast? 
What though he be forfeited to God's avenging jus- 
tice ? What though Satan accuse him of uncounted 
transgressions, and everlasting death assert its claim 
to the victim of disobedience ? If he can be made to 
feel his want, and to look up in prayer to God, as to a 
Being of unbounded love, there is hope even for a 
brand. There is a healing power in the Sun of Right- 
eousness, which can restore his soul, and enable him 
to rejoice in the everlasting riches of divine mercy. 
Thus God displays the boundless extent and opera- 



142 THE RESCUED BRAND. [SER. IX. 

tion of his love to man, contriving first, the way in 
which the sinner may be saved ; bestowing then, the 
gift which rendered this salvation possible ; applying 
the blood of sprinkling, the garment of righteousness, 
and the renewing Spirit, to render this salvation se- 
cure forever. The dangers of man arise from him- 
self. His safety and deliverance come wholly from 
the power which can, and the love which will, pluck 
the brand from the fire, to manifest the unspeakable 
goodness and glory of God. And to God alone, 
belongs the confidence which we repose in the fulfil- 
ment of the undertaking, and the praise which we 
render, when the work is done. 

V. Consider this brand once more. How precious 
is the Christian's ground of hope, the glorious union 
of divine power and divine love, in the work of his 
salvation ! From the beginning unto the end of this 
gracious work, he rests undividedly upon him, whose 
mercy rescued him from ruin, and who is able to keep 
him from falling, and to present him before the throne 
of his glory with exceeding joy. If we were to be 
saved by our own righteousness, or in any degree in 
proportion to our own righteousness, a total want of 
merit would condemn us altogether. But where 
every thing is of grace, a free gift, in a simple, cordial 
reliance upon what God the Saviour has done for us, 
there salvation is made sure. Past mercies accepted 
and improved, are pledges of far greater ones to come. 
If we grieve not the Holy Spirit by a voluntary rejec- 
tion of his power; if we labour to improve his visita- 
tions, and to glorify him in the duties of holy obe- 
ence, he will carry on unto perfection the work which 
he commences, and for which he is sent upon us. 



SER. IX.] THE RESCUED BRAND. 143 

The same hand which plucked us from the fire will 
carry us to the temple. He who laid the foundation, 
in his love from everlasting, will also bring forth the 
headstone, with everlasting shoutings to his grace. 
Having changed the sinner's garments, and given him 
new and heavenly raiment, in the place of the filthy 
garments, in which his sins had clothed him, the Lord 
says unto him, " If thou wilt now walk in my ways, 
and keep my charge, I will give thee a place to walk 
among these that stand by." He shall be equal 
unto the angels, and shall, with them, surround the 
throne, and enjoy the presence of his God. Here is 
a plan which renders the Christian's hope perfectly 
secure. God comforts him under all afflictions ; arms 
him in every conflict; silences every adversary; and 
makes him victorious over all things that war against 
the soul. The man who has found peace with God, 
has no enemy in the universe to fear. He who has 
delivered his soul from death, will keep his feet from 
falling, and his eyes from tears, and enable him to 
walk before God in the land of the living. He will 
carry him in safety through the changes of a mortal 
life. He will protect him in perfect peace, through 
the dark hours of dissolution. He will welcome him 
in heaven with immortal bliss. 

VI. How inestimable is this privilege of being the 
objects of God's unchangeable love ! of having our 
names written in his book of life, and of receiving in 
the daily supplies of his Spirit, an earnest that we 
shall never perish, and that no one shall pluck us out 
of his hand ! These are the privileges of the justified 
and converted man. This is the portion of his cup, 
and this is his inheritance forever. 



144 THE RESCUED BRAND. [SER. IX. 

These are privileges, my brethren, which you all 
need ; for which you will all at some time seek ; for 
which, while they are now rejected, many of you in 
future years may sigh in vain. Why then should any of 
you cast away the pearl of great price ? Why should 
you reject that friend, who is the chief among ten 
thousand, and altogether desirable and lovely ? You 
will feel the want of his presence in your hours of 
trial. You will see your need of his power to advo- 
cate and save, when you stand before the throne of 
God; when a thousand witnesses of your guilt are 
at your right hand to accuse and to resist you, while 
there is no shelter for you from the punishment of 
sin. You will realize the misery of being brands 
left in the fire, when the purposes of divine grace 
have been all completed, and heaven has received its 
innumerable company of ransomed souls, all of whom 
have been plucked from the ruin which sin brought 
upon them as upon you, while you yourselves are cast 
out. Why then will you not now be persuaded to 
feel and own your unworthiness and guilt, to suppli- 
cate the mercy of God, to seek for the salvation which 
is so freely offered to your acceptance ? Behold, how 
many around you have been plucked out of the fire, 
rescued from the punishment of sin, redeemed from 
the everlasting condemnation which awaited all ! O, 
do not suffer yourselves to be left to perish ! The 
divine power and love is abundant for the conversion 
of every soul. God is willing that you should all be 
saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. Do 
not then persevere in the rejection of his goodness, 
provoking the exercise of his wrath. You know not 
how near to you, may be the hour of recompense, the 



SER. IX.] THE RESCUED BRAND. 145 

last point of divine forbearance. See how many 
around you have been sealed for final condemnation. 
They are given up to the hardness of an impenitent 
heart, and are ready to be delivered over to the ven- 
geance of eternal fire. O, prize your opportunities 
while they remain ; improve your privileges while 
they are bestowed ; make full proof the blessings 
which God now confers upon you ; and be sure that 
you are sealed by his Spirit unto the day of redemp- 
tion. 



N 19 



SERMON X. 



THE SINNER'S CHOICE. 



St. John xviii. 40. — Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, 
but Barabbas* Now Barabbas was a robber* 



I do not select these words to speak particularly 
of the conduct of the Jews. It is of little avail to 
our benefit, to reproach them, or to hold up their 
conduct to reprehension. I suppose them to be no 
exceptions to mankind ; but a fair and distinct exhibi- 
tion of the human character, and an accurate develop- 
ment of the human heart. Their opposition to Jesus 
was but the natural opposition, which conscious 
iniquity generates, to the light and power of excel- 
lence. They hated him not for himself, but for his 
character. Their aversion to this, was the simple re- 
sult of man's native dislike to purity and holiness. 
Their obliquity of purpose, and cruelty of spirit, did 
not arise from their being Jews, but from their being 
men. 

The reception which they thus gave to human per- 
fection personified in the character and life of Jesus 
Christ, was no peculiarity in their circumstances. 

146 



SER. X.] THE SINNER'S CHOICE. 147 

Had he chosen Rome or Athens for the scene of his 
manifestation and his mighty works, the result would 
have been undoubtedly the same; nor is there the 
slightest reason to imagine the contrary. This rejec- 
tion of Christ was no mere incident of that particular 
age. In the attainments and cultivation of the human 
intellect, it was far from a barbarous age. In the in- 
ventions of a luxurious taste for man's indulgences, it 
was greatly the reverse. The same claims and cha- 
racter would have experienced the same repulse, in 
every age, and in all the circumstances of human his- 
tory. The very general rejection of the Saviour's 
authority and invitations, under all the influence of a 
Christian education, and a prejudice (if I may so call it) 
in their favour, in our time ; the infidelity and contempt 
of the Gospel, which stalks with such demoniac con- 
fidence throughout our land ; in my judgment, compel 
the conclusion, that had the Son of God delayed his 
incarnation to our day, and selected this continent 
and city, for the revelation of himself, in his doctrines 
and miracles, to mankind; the same experience would 
have awaited him here ; and as many voices as shouted 
in that hour of darkness around Jerusalem, would 
raise the awful cry upon our soil also, " not this man, 
but Bar abb as." 

1 did not select these words, therefore, to speak 
particularly of the conduct of the Jews. They are 
to be viewed as the expression of the choice of a 
carnal bund. They will be found to be the actual 
expression of multitudes around us every day. And 
the worst result of their first utterance by the Jews, 
becomes their everlasting result, in the case and expe- 
rience of thousands, of the state and choice of whose 



148 THE sinner's choice. [ser. X. 

minds, they are now the declaration. It is under this 
view that I propose to consider our text ; a view 
which leaves its circumstances behind, to present its 
principle ; a view which brings out our own concern 
with the transaction which it records, as well as that 
of the first actors in the scene. In pursuing this view, 
I remark, 

I. The great and peculiar sin of man under the 
Christian dispensation, is the rejection of the authority 
and offers of a Saviour, for the sake of some opposing 
interest, or proposition. Wherever the Gospel is 
proclaimed, men are not only called upon to choose 
whom they will serve, and with whom they will be 
identified ; but in the actual necessity of circum- 
stances also, they do make this choice. Jesus insists 
upon an absolute union and copartnership with him, 
to be regulated according to his single will, as the 
proper, and the only allowable course, for all who 
listen to his word. He declares, that whosoever is 
not with him, is against him ; and whosoever gathereth 
not with him, scattereth abroad. He allows no pre- 
tended, passive neutrality, no alleged quietness, and 
abstinence from interfering, in the cause which he 
sustains among men. All such negative assumptions, 
he deems a positive and designed opposition. Men 
are required to make a selection between two interests 
and schemes, which are in irreconcilable hostility to 
each other ; of which, whichever becomes triumph- 
ant, the other must be destroyed. This choice be- 
tween two plans which can never even approach to 
conciliation, is demanded, and is made, wherever the 
Gospel is proclaimed and heard. When the call for 
repentance for sin, the offer of free forgiveness 



SER. X.] THE SINNER'S CHOICE. 149 

through the Saviour's blood, the demand for simple 
submission to the Lord's authority, are heard, though 
but for a single time, this choice between two oppos- 
ing schemes, is proposed on the Lord's behalf, and 
made on the part of man. 

It cannot be doubted, that he who immediately em- 
braces the proposal which is thus made to him from 
heaven, who submits himself to the divine govern- 
ance, who, as a redeemed sinner, casts in his lot with 
the Redeemer who hath ransomed him with his blood, 
and enters into the required partnership with him, has 
made a distinct choice. He is henceforth identified, 
in all his interests, efforts, and hopes, with the gra- 
cious friend who hath bought him with a price. He 
will abide with him. If he conquers, he will partake 
of the glory of his triumph. But it can no more 
justly be doubted, that he who does not thus embrace 
the principles and offers of the Saviour in his Gospel, 
though he make no positive resolution to the contrary, 
nor is conscious of any thing in his state of mind, but 
a simple unwillingness to become yet a disciple of 
Jesus, under the influence of which, he goes from the 
Gospel message still unsubdued and unconverted, has 
as actually made his choice of that stand and service 
which Jesus opposes. Whether this shall be a per- 
manent choice, does not depend entirely upon himself. 
God may give him no opportunity to reverse it. And 
for the time being, and to the utmost extent of his own 
power of determination, it is a positive and unqualified 
refusal of the Saviour's invitation, and an equally un- 
qualified rejection of his authority. It is a distinct 
and positive choice by the sinner's mind and heart, of 
which the direct expression is, " not this man, but Bar- 
n2 



150 the sinner's choice. [ser. X. 

abbas ;" not Christ and his salvation, or not now at 
least, but something which opposes them. It matters 
not what that something may be. It is Barabbas still. 
It is the direct and designed opponent of the Saviour. 
There may be a thousand extenuations suggested. 
Barabbas may be refined, and clothed, and made re- 
spectable. But it is Barabbas still. It is an object 
which is in appointed and selected opposition to 
Christ, which has been chosen in preference to Christ, 
and for the sake of which, Christ has been refused. 
Here immovably remains, the point of the character, 
of the responsibility, and of the condemnation. The 
act of man has been a voluntary choice. The posi- 
tion of the man is, that he has made this choice. The 
guilt and the punishment of the man, rest also upon 
this simple fact. He has chosen death rather than 
life. He has preferred Barabbas to Christ. 

II. I would illustrate this choice in some instances 
which display it. There are many such. The rival 
claims to the affections of man, for which the service 
of the Saviour is refused, are exceedingly various. 
They are as various also in their character of guilt, 
as they appear to the eye and the estimation of man. 
But they all come to the same result. They are con- 
stituted into representatives of the same spirit of 
hostility to Christ. They become, in this relation of 
hostility to him, in his view, the equally guilty per- 
sonifications of that carnal mind, which is enmity 
against God, and will not be subject to his will. 
Coming under this uniform character of guilt, in the 
rejection of Christ which they produce, there is no 
regard to be had, in our estimation of their character, 
either as it regards their danger or their responsi- 



SER. X.] THE SINNER S CHOICE. 151 

bility, to their minor differences of circumstances. 
Rejecters of the Lord are heirs of an indiscriminate 
condemnation. " The wrath of God is revealed 
against every soul of man that doeth evil." " Those 
mine enemies, which would not that I should reign 
over them, bring them hither, and slay them before 
me." 

But what is the Barabbas for which the human 
heart rejects a Saviour ? 

I see the young man following the pleasures of 
sense, and for these, despising and driving from him 
the claims of piety. He walks in the delusive paths 
of sinful indulgence. He follows the heated guidance 
of unlawful appetite. He drinks continually of that 
vainly sweetened cup, which, in his bitter remorse, he 
as continually nauseates. He runs to riot with the 
noisy and sensual. He chooses these baser gratifica- 
tions for his present portion ; and lays down his head, 
to slumber for destruction, in the lap of gross enjoy- 
ment. For these, he rejects the Saviour's invitations. 
He counts all religion as a series of contemptible aus- 
terities. He hardly persuades himself to be respect- 
ful to its ministrations. If in public, or in solitude, 
his conscience ever becomes awakened; if God speaks 
to him in anger, in the deep recesses of his own soul, 
he turns from the alarm with undisguised aversion, 
and rushes again into the madness of his indulgences, 
to bury himself up from a meddling Deity. What is 
his whole conduct, but the unceasing brazen boast, 
" Who is the Almighty, that I should serve him?" 
What is the expression of every act of his life, but 
the declared, yes, the vehemently declared choice, 
" not this man, but Barabbas ?" 



152 the sinner's choice. [ser. x. 

I see the giddy daughter of vanity and fashion. 
Her whole thoughts are occupied with the changing 
scenes of a world, the fashion of which passeth away. 
She lives for a vain exhibition of herself. The low 
vanity of outward decoration, the poor ambition of 
arranging her tinsel with taste, the round of giddy 
society, the feverish excitement of the dance, and the 
gay assembly, shall I say the theatre? — no, this is 
almost too disreputable for my present supposition — 
all these occupy and rule her affections and her mind. 
For these, the offers of the Gospel are despised. For 
these, the glories of eternity are vilely cast away. 
The world can have the thoughts, but Christ cannot. 
The mirror and the novel can command the time, but 
the Bible cannot. And the intellect, and the affec- 
tions, and the life of the soul, are all frittered away, 
in this ceaseless sifting of earthly giddiness. What 
though there is nothing there which the world calls 
vice? What though refinement and elegance have 
adorned and dignified the whole scene ; and this 
daughter of folly is to be led on to her immolation, 
ornamented with garlands, and surrounded by joyous 
strains? Is it not hostility to Christ? Is it not 
direct aversion to his service, that constitutes the 
principle here ? For these vanities, she has cast 
away the favour of her God. For these, she exchanges 
the blessed hope and portion, which the Saviour gives. 
These are but the representatives of her refusal of 
his love ; and in her devotion to these, she is daily 
shouting in her insensate giddiness, "not this man, 
but Barabbas." 

I see the man of business, in his neglect of godli- 
ness, for the following of gain ; devoting all the ener- 



SER. X.] THE SINNER'S CHOICE. 153 

gies of his mind to the amassing of wealth ; with his 
head bowed down to the earth ; his eyes fixed upon 
earthly goods, and his mind digging into possible 
mines of treasure for himself. But with him, all is 
as if there were no God, and no future eternity, for 
he acknowledges no authority, but present interest, 
and asks for no portion, but the present world. His 
soul is mammonized completely. The desire of his 
heart is simply for present gain. Now, why do you 
tell me, that he is respectable, and moral, and upright, 
and domestic, and affectionate ? What is all this ? It 
would be as much to the purpose, to tell me that he 
clothed himself from the winter's cold, and guarded 
his appetite from the approach of want. I tell you, 
his unconverted heart rejects a Saviour. His proud 
will refuses submission to God. His carnal mind is 
upon earthly things. All his boasted excellencies are 
but the glitterings of his selfishness. They have their 
own reward, but they can expect none from a God 
who has been entirely forgotten. For this busy, ac- 
cumulating life, he rejects all the admonitions and 
offers of the Gospel. He drives away from him the 
demands of the Redeemer, and of his own soul. He 
passes his time amidst all the privileges of the Gospel, 
keeping and cherishing an unconverted heart. The 
whole language of his life, and if you press upon him 
the obligations of piety, the language of his lips, is, 
" not this man, but Barabbas." 

I see the toiling aspirant for human honour, climb- 
ing the slippery steep where so many fall, and the 
summit of which so few have gained. Reputation, and 
the influence of reputation, are the all with him. For 
this he studies, and plans, and labours. So much of 

20 



154 the sinner's choice. [ser. X. 

the form of religion as is respectable, he will have. 
Where popularity with men plants the stake of limit, 
there he stops. His Bar abbas is the praise of men. 
For this, he rejects the honour that cometh from God 
only. Polite, decorous, and respectable toward reli- 
gion, for he loves the praise of good men too, he will 
give his countenance and example to apparent reli- 
gious worship. But his heart deliberately stands in 
the determination, not to lose the influence of popu- 
larity in his profession, for the favour of God. And 
with all his outward smoothness, his speaking fairly 
of religious things, there is a deep and determined 
hostility, in his heart, to the claims and the power of 
the Gospel. He remains, by his own distinct choice, 
an unconverted man. He drives from him the charges 
of the Bible, with affected disdain. He will not seek 
his life from Christ. And the language of his un- 
changing course, as it speaks in every act, and in 
every determination of his life, is, " not this man, but 
Bar abb as." 

I see the self-righteous man in his false estimation 
of his own character, weighing and measuring future 
expectations, by present imaginary deeds ; congratu- 
lating himself upon his spiritual security ; and putting 
far from him the imagination of an evil day. His 
pride of character will not stoop under the acknow- 
ledgment of sin. His confidence in his own worth, 
forbids his seeking a shelter in the righteousness of 
another. I press upon him the charge of guilt in the 
sight of God. I warn him of an abiding insufficiency 
in himself. I announce to him a condemnation, from 
which, superabounding grace to sinners, furnishes the 
only way of escape. But he knits his brow with dis- 



SER. X.] THE SINNER S CHOICE. 155 

pleasure; and presses his lips with determination; 
and his whole countenance speaks the choice which 
his whole heart makes and cultivates, " not this man, 
but Barabbas." 

I see the healthful, procrastinating all regard to 
God, to the hours of sickness ; looking upon the Gos- 
pel only as a remedy, and refusing to receive it until 
they shall feel sure that they must perish without it. 
And for this they now choose the portion which is 
opposed to Christ, meaning and hoping, to use it only 
for a time, and to renounce it altogether when sick- 
ness and death shall come. I see the prosperous and 
gay, waiting until the season of distress shall compel 
them to seek their shelter at the cross ; refusing to 
follow Jesus, until they must follow him in garments 
of mourning, but not of mourning for sin ; thinking 
of the Gospel only as a consolation for weeping, a 
residuum for days of grief; and thrusting it from 
them till these days shall come. I see the young, re- 
fusing to offer unto God the morning sacrifice, and 
looking forward to the time when the shadows of the 
evening are stretched out, and the remnant of life 
flickers in the weakness of old age, as the season 
when the wants of the soul shall be considered, and 
a provision for the peace of eternity shall be made. 
And as I see these things, I cannot but mourn, that 
even God's blessings to man, health, and prosperity, 
and youth, should be converted into a Barabbas of op- 
position to him ; that even his unspeakable mercies 
should be transformed, by man's depravity, into the 
instruments and occasions of more determined re- 
bellion against himself. 

I need not multiply these illustrations more exten- 



156 the sinner's choice. [SER. X. 

sively. They all result in the very same point, a re- 
fusal of the favour and the promises of the Redeemer, 
for something which is preferred in opposition to him. 
Their guilt is not in the wickedness of the object which 
is selected ; but in the rejection of the Saviour, whose 
service and authority are renounced, for the sake of 
it. They are in all cases, instances of the same 
choice of a carnal mind. They bring upon each in- 
dividual who makes this choice, the same solemn con- 
demnation of those who reject the light, and prefer 
the darkness to it, because their deeds are evil. The 
responsibility and the guilt of all, is fastened upon 
the very same point, the voluntary refusal and 
neglect of that great salvation, which God has offered 
to man in his dear Son. From this responsibility and 
guilt they cannot escape. 

III. Consider how fearful is the guilt, how alarm- 
ing is the danger of this choice ! " Barabbas was a 
robber." And is not Barabbas a robber still? In 
each of these instances, of the forsaking of Christ 
for the love of this present world, there is an actual 
robbery of the deluded soul that is guilty of the 
choice. Whether the selected alternate be giddiness, 
profligacy, or self-righteous morality, Barabbas is a 
robber. And all that is precious and important for 
the soul, is stolen from it. The loss which the sinner 
bears cannot be estimated in this world, nor can it be 
calculated by worldly measures. It is eternity, which 
is at stake. It is the happiness of eternity, of which 
he is robbed. It is the wretched despair of eternity, 
which is his selected alternative. O, foolish nation 
and unwise, who thus despise the rock of your salva- 
tion ; and renounce a Saviour to embrace a robber ! 



SER. X.] THE SINNER'S CHOICE. 157 

You are robbed of the favour of God forever, of 
all peace with him, and all hope before him. You 
cannot stand before him, in any righteousness of your 
own. You must be interested in the atonement, and 
clothed with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
or you have no hope at the judgment seat of God. In 
Jesus only, is he to be found, as the reconciled Father 
and the friend of sinners. While you are rejecting 
this Saviour from the dominion of your hearts, you 
are throwing from you the possibility of reconcilia- 
tion unto God. You stand in judgment with him in 
your iniquities. And the life which, for its guiltiness, 
your own conscience cannot justify, a holy and heart- 
searching God will drive from him, with utter abhor- 
rence. He will arise against you in his anger, and 
will deliver you over to the vengeance which sin de- 
serves. You will find him a consuming fire; and 
realize in the bitter experience of eternity, that it is 
a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 
You bear all this, because for the love of this present 
world, in some one or many of its Protean shapes, 
you have rejected the love of Jesus Christ, and re- 
fused the blessed salvation which he has offered you 
in his Gospel. Yes — a world which scorns you, and 
deceives you, but cannot help you, has robbed you of 
your God. 

You are robbed of the compassionate intercession 
of a Saviour. There was a time, when through many 
days and years, Jesus pitied you, sought for you, and 
would have clothed you with himself. But when he 
called, you refused ; when he stretched out his hand, 
you did not regard it. You would none of his coun- 
sel; you despised all his reproof. He pleaded for 




158 the sinner's choice. [ser. X. 

you, and pleaded with you, with great long-suffering 
and forbearance, that you might be rescued and saved. 
But you rejected all his efforts ; you disregarded his 
warnings ; you despised his mercy. When he stood 
before you in all the attractions of overflowing kind- 
ness, in all the exciting power of his disinterested 
grief and suffering, you turned away from him, to a 
waiting robber that was thrust before you, and madly 
said, " not this man, but Barabbas." And now you 
stand in judgment, in the length, and depth, and all 
the aggravation of your guilt, and there is no Advo- 
cate to plead for you, no Redeemer to interpose in 
your behalf, no all-prevailing High Priest, who can 
say, " spare him, for I have found a ransom." The 
Lord Jesus stands aloof from your calamity ; and 
you struggle in the darkness of death, and tremble 
in the terrors of judgment, and contend with the 
strangling serpents of eternal remorse ; and there is 
no hand of grace to grasp you now, and no voice of 
friendship, to assure you of your safety, or to hush 
your fears to rest. The enemy that derides you, and 
tramples upon you, has robbed you of your Saviour. 
You are robbed of the immortal interests and wel- 
fare of your soul. What will all the perishing things 
which you have chosen, avail you in your future hour 
of need ? What will you carry away with you, from 
this vain world, for the love of which you have re- 
jected the Lord Jesus Christ? O, consider that 
change, that solemn change, in which mortality is 
swallowed up by enduring life ! When your body 
returns naked to the earth, to say to corruption, 
" thou art my sister," what does it carry away with 
it ? Its appetites have been fed ; its lusts have been 



SER. X.] THE SINNER'S CHOICE. 159 

indulged ; its appearance has been adorned. But 
now all these things have passed. They perished in 
the using, and are forgotten. The cultivated and 
ornamented form lies cold and mouldering, in its bed 
of darkness. But where is the soul ? What does it 
carry away ? Alas I no peace or hope. It is laden 
with the dreadful responsibility and consciousness of 
all this catering for earthly lusts ; the guilt of thus 
making the body which has perished, the object of its 
idolatry. Beyond this, dreadful as it is, it bears the 
load of its own iniquities, in which the flesh did not 
participate. But it takes from this life, no ray of 
comfort, no ground for peace, no repository in itself, 
for future satisfaction. All its recollections are only 
painful and distressing. All its prospects are even 
worse. The only peace of the soul has been per- 
versely thrown away. The only hope of the soul has 
been heedlessly rejected, in the rejection of the Sa- 
viour who died for it. Wretched and outcast, driven 
from a world in which it cannot remain, this is all 
that it has for its folly, that it lies down in sorrow. 
It has fallen among thieves indeed, and it is left 
stripped and perishing forever. The Barabbas whom 
it preferred to Christ, has robbed it of every comfort. 
Its welfare is forever gone. The everlasting result 
of its folly, is everlasting burnings. The only price 
for its contempt of the Lord of all, is the devouring 
fire. It is rejected, and driven from his presence, 
forevermore undone. 

IV. This is the necessary, universal result of your 
choice, when Christ in the blessings of his salvation 
is rejected, for the love of vain and perishing things. 
0, 1 would solemnly and affectionately warn you against 



160 the sinner's CHOICE. [SER. X. 

the indulgence of this carnal mind. It is death ; it 
will be death forever. 

I would stand by your own eternal interests, and 
beg you, do not barter them for that which will ruin 
you, but cannot profit. Behold, the peace which 
passeth understanding, the hope which maketh not 
ashamed, the glory which excelleth, the habitation 
not made with hands which faileth not. Behold, the 
favour and approbation of God, the friendship and 
love of the Saviour, the joy which the Holy Ghost 
bestows. Behold, the innumerable company of 
angels ; the churgh of the first-born which are 
written in heaven ; the spirits of the just made per- 
fect; all these are yours, if ye are Christ's. These 
are the privileges of a converted and justified soul. 
They may all be yours when your souls become the 
habitation of God through the Spirit. O, do not part 
with them, nor be deluded into an exchange of these 
eternal blessings, for any of the pleasures of sin for 
a season. 

I would stand by the bleeding side of Jesus, and 
beg you, do not ungratefully refuse him, to choose a 
robber. O, consider all his sufferings in your behalf; 
his humiliation under your burden of guilt ; his 
agonies in bearing the chastisement of your peace. 
Behold him under the curse, that you might not be 
cursed ; dying, that you might live ; rising, that you 
might reign forever. Behold him, pleading the worth 
of his sacrifice for you, in heaven ; crying amidst all 
your guilt, spare them this year, and this year also ; 
pressing the arguments of his love in your own con- 
science ; urging you to receive his kindness, and live 
to God with him. O, do not turn a deaf ear and a 



SER. X.] THE SINNER'S CHOICE. 161 

hardened heart to all the solicitations of his mercy, 
and wound and crucify him again, and put him to an 
open shame, by joining with those who oppose and 
despise him. 

I would stand by the sovereign authority of the 
living God, and entreat you, do not treat it with con- 
tempt, for an adversary to him and to yourselves. He 
demands your submission. He can compel it. He 
has declared he will. Your knees must bow to him, 
though in the anguish of a destruction which you 
cannot resist. Do not provoke him to swear in his 
wrath, that you shall not enter into his rest. O seek 
him, as a God of mercy and consolation, as he is 
offered in the Gospel, and seek him now while you 
may, that you perish not. 

I would stand by the momentous issues of eternity, 
and beg you, do not lose your crown in them, for any 
thing which perisheth here below. There is set be- 
fore you an open door, and you are invited to enter 
in and be safe. Behold the heavenly rest which is 
set before you ; the everlasting recompense of re- 
ward, which is freely offered as the purchase of a Sa- 
viour's blood ; and do not cast them from you for the 
temptations of sin. God waiteth to be gracious, 
when you shall be found believing in his Son. O, 
come then unto him, and take his yoke upon you, and 
you shall find rest unto your souls. 



o 2 21 



SERMON XL 



THE CHRISTIAN'S ROCK. 



Deuteronomy xxxii. 31. — For their rock is not as our rock, even our 
enemies themselves being judges. 

This assertion is a part of the song which Moses 
taught to the Israelites, on the borders of the land of 
Canaan. He was at the close of a long life of trial 
and labour. He had finished the work which had 
been given him to do ; and being prohibited from en- 
tering the land of promise, he records, by divine 
direction, for his people, in this song, a testimonial of 
the goodness of God, and their own ingratitude, that 
it might remain with them in all their future genera- 
tions. 

After having spoken much of the power and kind- 
ness of the God of Israel, as they had been displayed 
in his past dispensations with his people, he compares 
him in our text, as the rock of Israel, with all the 
gods of the surrounding heathen nations, whom he 
styles their rock ; and asserts in this comparison, his 
entire superiority over them. To sustain this com- 
parison, he appeals, not to the experience of the 

162 



SEE,. XI.] THE CHRISTIAN'S ROCK. 163 

Israelites, but to that of their enemies. He demands 
the judgment of those who have opposed the Lord of 
hosts. He calls for their acknowledgment of his 
power. He summons them, to bear their present tes- 
timony. Where are the Egyptians who perished in 
the sea ; or the Amorites who fell in the wilderness ? 
Where is Pharaoh, who refused his submission to 
God; or Sihon and Og, who came out to destroy his 
people ? What is their judgment ? What is the 
estimate of the power of the God of Israel, which 
their knowledge and experience has led them to form? 
He thus appeals to an evidence which was incon- 
testable; to a history of facts which had been so 
plainly exhibited, that there was no room for hesita- 
tion or doubt. And while he makes this appeal, he 
proclaims that there is none like unto the Lord, 
glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing 
wonders. 

In selecting this assertion as a subject for discourse, 
I have before my mind, a similar comparison to that 
which Moses makes, and evidence of a similar cha- 
racter to sustain and enforce it. I wish to transfer 
the assertion of the text to our own circumstances. 
And as the God whom we worship, is the God who 
revealed himself to Israel, by Moses, the present ap- 
plication of the text, is in no degree, a perversion of 
it, from its proper meaning. In the Gospel of Jesus, 
we make the Lord of hosts our rock. In choosing 
him, and resting upon him thus, we are encompassed 
by enemies, both to him and to ourselves. And in 
the view of all these enemies, we make our choice. 
We adopt, therefore, as entirely appropriate to our 
own condition, the strong testimony before us. 



164 the christian's rock. [SER. XI. 

"Their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies 
themselves being the judges." 

The subject upon which I design to speak, as sug- 
gested by this text, is the concessions which the 

WORLD MAKES TO THE WORTH OF THE RELIGION OF 

the Gospel. In considering our text under this 
view, we have, 

I. The comparison which is to be made, and 

II. The testimony which is to be adduced 
to support it. 

I. We will consider the comparison which is to be 
made. " Their rock is not as our rock." What is 
" their rock?" and what is " our rock?" 

1 . What is the rock of the world ? It is the spe- 
cial foundation which it lays for present peace and 
future hope. When the Christian's rock is rejected, 
and the foundation which is laid in the Gospel is 
refused, the wisdom of man must find some other 
foundation for confidence. There are but three pos- 
sible systems, upon which dependence may be placed, 
by men who have not embraced the hope of the Gos- 
pel. Upon one of these every unconverted man, 
every lover of this present world more than God, is 
fixing all his expectations of comfort and rest. 

He may make a bold system of Atheism his rock. 
He must say in his judgment, and in his profession, 
as he actually does in his heart, " There is no God ;" 
and, of course, no future responsibility for his soul. 
In theory, there are few, perhaps, who suppose them- 
selves to be Atheists ; who can look abroad upon all 
the wonderful works of God, behold their contrivance 
and variety, and deliberately deny that there is a 
Being who made them all. But in a practical de~ 



SER. XL] THE CHRISTIAN'S ROCK. 165 

velopment of principles, there are vast multitudes 
who are without God in the world ; whose whole life 
and character is precisely as if there were no God. 
And it would be but an honest avowal of the actual 
dependence, if they should openly announce the 
theory by which they are manifestly guided, to be the 
theory which they intentionally and systematically 
adopt. 

If however, the worldly man shudder at this as- 
sumption, and is not willing to avow absolute Atheism 
to be his rock ; he must, with the acknowledgment 
of the existence of a God who judgeth in the earth, 
rest his confidence of acceptance with him, upon his 
own integrity and obedience, and make his own right- 
eousness his rock. This dependence is far more 
common than its evident worthlessness might lead us 
to suppose. While men are ignorant of the deep 
corruption and guiltiness of their souls, they form a 
false estimate of their own character. They vainly 
imagine that what meets their own partial and blinded 
approbation, will also meet the approbation of God. 
They thus pretend to claim as a right, as the reward 
of their own works, the future blessedness which God 
has promised to his people. They imagine it would 
be unjust in God, to condemn and destroy them, and 
suppose therefore, that he will not do it. 

If a partial knowledge of his own sinfulness de- 
stroy the confidence, which a worldly man would be 
disposed to feel in himself, the only remaining ground 
of hope for him, is, that though there is a God, and 
though he, as a sinner, can claim nothing from such a 
being, yet the mercy of God will not suffer any man 
to be destroyed. This is the only remaining rock. 



166 the christian's rock. [SER. XI, 

It is the hope, that God will still receive and save 
men, though they are sinners, and none shall be cast 
into the sorrows of hell forever. 

Here is a choice among three distinct systems of 
confidence. One of these is always the rock of the 
world. Upon one of these, as a selected foundation, 
every unconverted man rests his confidence, and in 
its possession, comforts himself in a present course 
of sin. To give them their technical names, they are 
Atheism, and Deism, and Universalism. No other 
position can be imagined as held by the man who re- 
jects the Gospel of Christ, and the foundation which 
the Lord Jesus has laid for human hope. One of 
these three must be the rock of the world. And the 
examination of his own state of mind, will show to 
every unconverted man who hears me, that he has 
adopted, and is carrying out, one of these three sys- 
tems, as the balm of comfort to his soul. 

2. Now what is " our rock?" the rock of the 
Christian? Certainly, neither of these three. We 
know that there is a God. We know that in our own 
righteousness, we cannot stand before him. If he 
shall enter into judgment with us, our iniquity will 
certainly be found out. We know that though he is 
plenteous in mercy, he will by no means clear the 
guilty. " The wicked shall be turned into hell, and 
all the people that forget God." All these vain 
grounds of hope, we utterly renounce. Our rock is 
Christ. God reconciled unto us, through the one 
offering of Jesus once for all, is our whole depend- 
ence, our only ground of hope. On this rock, we 
feel secure. It allows us no room for fear from past 
transgressions, because it exhibits a full and all-suffi- 



SER. XI.] THE CHRISTIAN'S ROCK. 167 

cient satisfaction for them all, in the blood of Jesus. 
It suffers us in no apprehensions from present defi- 
ciencies, because it reveals the perfect obedience of 
Christ as counted unto us, for our complete accept- 
ance. It permits no fear from future weakness, be- 
cause it shows this Almighty Saviour to be all-sufficient 
in strength, and able to finish the work which he has 
undertaken for us, and by his equal Spirit to accom- 
plish all his good pleasure within us also. It leaves 
no room for distress from surrounding dangers, be- 
cause it conveys the assurance, that all things shall 
work together for good to them that love God, who 
are called according to his purpose. This is " our 
rock" — the rock that is higher than we, to which 
we cry to be led, when our heart is overwhelmed 
within us. It is ours, because God, according to the 
greatness of his mercy, has given it unto us. It is 
his provision in our behalf. It is ours, because he 
has enabled us to accept it with our hearts, as our 
whole dependence and defence. It bears us up above 
our sins, and our condemnation. It bears for us our 
hope of glory. And this is the rock which we com- 
pare with the rock of the world. " Their rock is 
not as our rock." We place them side by side, in fair 
examination, and intend to show the truth of the as- 
sertion which we make, of the entire superiority of 
our dependence. 

II. I proceed to consider the testimony which is to 
be adduced to support the comparison thus made — 
"even our enemies themselves being the judges." 

Observe, my brethren, I do not now rest upon the 
experience of Christians, the people of the living God, 
who have built upon this rock, and tested its worth 



168 the christian's ROCK. [SER. XL 

and strength. This would certainly be an abundant, 
and a most legitimate and proper source of testimony. 
But I waive it for the present. We will not go up to 
heaven, amidst the uncounted millions that encompass 
the throne of God in triumph, and fill the atmosphere 
of glory with their shouts of praise ; though should 

We ask them whence their victory came ? 

They, with united breath, 
Ascribe their conquest to the Lamb, 

Their triumph to his death. 

They would furnish a glorious testimony to the 
worth of the Gospel, and the power of Christ, as they 
answered us, " we are they which came out of great 
tribulation, and have washed our robes, and made them 
white in the blood of the Lamb ; therefore, are we 
before the throne of God, and serve him day and 
night in his temple; and he that sitteth upon the 
throne shall dwell among us; we shall hunger no 
more, neither thirst any more ; neither shall the sun 
light on us, nor any heat ; for the Lamb which is in 
the midst of the throne shall feed us, and shall lead 
us unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe 
away all tears from our eyes." But we will not 
dwell upon this. 

We will not go abroad upon the earth, to gain the 
testimony and experience of the millions of the friends 
and followers of the Lord Jesus here, though they 
would all proclaim with united heart and voice, that 
they " have none in heaven but him, and there is none 
upon the earth they desire in comparison with him." 
He is " all their salvation and all their desire;" "the 
strength of their heart, and their portion forever." 
We waive the right, however, to all this cloud of wit- 



SER. XI.] THE CHRISTIAN'S ROCK. 169 

nesses to the exceeding value of " our rock." Just, 
and convincing, and abundant, as their testimony 
would be, to the power, and sufficiency, and glory of 
Christ, we will not appeal to, or rest upon this. We 
commit our whole cause to the judgment and deci- 
sion of the world itself. We place the enemies of 
Christ, upon the bench of determination, and stand 
before them, to plead the claims of our Saviour and 
God. And we leave to the decision of their own 
consciences, the question, whether upon the simple 
and manifest concessions of the world, to the worth 
of the Gospel, the assertion of our text is not abun- 
dantly supported. 

The spirit and principles of this world, are un- 
doubtedly opposed to the religion of the Gospel. The 
carnal mind, under all its possible outward refine- 
ments, is still enmity against God. The Saviour 
comes daily unto the world, and the world receives 
him not, and knows him not. Whatever concessions, 
therefore, are made by this ungodly world, to the 
worth of his Gospel, are of the greater value, from 
the fact, that they are entirely undesigned, and invo- 
luntary. The inconsistency with which unconverted 
men applaud and uphold the Gospel of Christ, while 
they reject its whole operation for good upon their 
own souls, condemns them out of their own mouth. 
And the result of our present examination will be to 
show, that the assertion of our present text must be 
acknowledged to be truth ; or carnally minded men, to 
sustain their own principles, must pursue a course of 
conduct totally different from their present one. What 
then are the concessions, which the world makes to 
the worth of the religion of the Gospel ? 

P 22 



170 THE CHRISTIAN'S ROCK. [SER. XL 

1. The first is, in the general respect which men 
render to the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
though they feel not its renewing power, and reject 
all its spiritual operations upon their own souls. Two 
things are exceedingly manifest in the character and 
appearance of the world around us ; that the majority 
of men yield no subjection of their hearts to Christ, 
but are living in all respects without him, and regard- 
less of him, as a Saviour for them ; and yet, that the 
external services of his religion are treated by them 
with peculiar respect, and supported at a great ex- 
pense. From these two facts, what conclusion must 
we draw? When a man has selected the present 
world as his portion, in a rejection of the claims of 
the Gospel upon his heart, by the Saviour's testi- 
mony, he is acting really against Christ, and the love 
of the Father is not in him. His real spirit is hos- 
tility to the Gospel ; and every tribute of regard or 
reverence which he pays to the commands of Christ, 
from whatever motive, is just so far a concession on 
his part, to the worth and importance of the religion 
which Jesus Christ has established among men. What 
argument must we derive, then, from their attendance 
on the worship enjoined by the Gospel, who reject the 
power of the Gospel over themselves ? What from 
their regard to the institution of the Sabbath ? What 
from their costly preparation for the religious services 
of this holy day? Why do not unbelieving men 
occupy all this time, and devote this cost simply to 
the engagements and pleasures of the present world ? 
Why do they erect a temple for the worship of the 
Son of God, which is to stand as a monument against 
themselves, if they submit not to the governmen 



SER. XL] THE CHRISTIAN'S ROCK. 171 

which he claims and exercises among men ? Why do 
they sustain a ministry, which is to be for their own 
condemnation, and to stand up as a witness against 
them, in the great day of Almighty God ? Why do 
they unite to support a system, which openly declares, 
that " the wrath of God abideth on them," notwith- 
standing all their reverence and their expense ? What 
means it all, but that it is a marked concession on the 
part of worldly men, that " their rock is not as our 
rock ?" However inconsistent on the part of worldly 
and unconverted men, such conduct is, with the prin- 
ciples of opposition to Jesus, by which they are really 
governed, it is a direct and unceasing acknowledgment 
of the superior worth and claims of the Gospel. 
Every dollar which a man, in whose heart the Lord 
Jesus Christ does not reign, gives to the support of 
the Gospel, and every occasion on which he unites in 
the worship of the Christian sanctuary, is a simple 
and repeated confession of the importance and value 
of that rock which he still rejects. He stands con- 
demned out of his own mouth. 

2. A second concession which the world makes to 
the religion of the Gospel, is the high standard which 
its judgment establishes for Christian conduct, and 
its immediate and uniform detection and exposure of 
the Christian's personal deficiencies and inconsist- 
encies, as compared with this standard. This must 
be a subject of universal observation. A course of 
life which is considered in no degree derogatory to 
the character of a professedly worldly man, becomes, 
in the opinion of the world, absolutely ruinous to the 
professed Christian. How common is the remark, 
when some minor fraud is discovered in the business 



172 the christian's rock. [ser. XI. 

of a Christian professor, some apparent unfaithfulness 
in the settlement of his monied transactions ; or when 
some man calling himself a Christian, is found in the 
haunts of giddiness or sensuality ; or when he is sub- 
dued even temporarily by the indulgence of appetite ; 
or found to grasp with a greedy spirit, the emoluments 
of the world; "if he did not profess to be a Chris- 
tian it would be of no consequence !" How is this? 
What does it mean ? Will the world allow its vota- 
ries a standard of character, which the Gospel will 
not allow to its disciples ? Can a worldly man be 
still honoured, though charged with conduct which in 
his own opinion, would disgrace him if he professed 
to be a Christian ? Yet this is the fact. There are 
hundreds and thousands of the men of this world, 
who feel that the indulgence of their own lusts, an 
indulgence which is in no degree disreputable to them 
in their present circumstances, and shuts them out of 
no society, even genteel female society — so called, — 
(I mourn to say it,) is the great obstacle to their be- 
coming disciples of a religion, whose very purity com- 
pels them to respect it, while they hate the authority 
which it exercises. They can be respectable in the 
world, though they are steeped in iniquity. They 
cannot be respectable as members of the Christian 
church, if even suspected of crimes in secret, which 
they now unblushingly commit. When a professed 
Christian is found in conduct inconsistent with this 
high standard which the world has fixed for him, 
though still on a far higher ground in moral character 
than is perfectly respectable in the world, and than 
worldly men around are perfectly content to occupy, 
the world says, he has fallen. Fallen! Why? 



SER. XL] THE CHRISTIAN^ ROCK. 173 

Does the world acknowledge itself in excellence be- 
neath the Gospel ? If a man, once a worldly man, 
having professed himself a Christian, h.^ fallen, when 
he returns to his former position, and becomes a mere 
worldly man again, must he not have been exalted ac- 
cording to the same standard, when from his original 
character and profession, he became a Christian? 
Now we do not complain of this. We are not sorry 
that the world establishes so high and perfect a 
standard for us, as the servants of Jesus Christ. 
No. God forbid that it should be lowered. But 
how very important and remarkable is the con- 
cession which this standard makes to the worth and 
the dignity of the Gospel ! The world allows that I 
may do on its rock with honour and without fear, that 
which I cannot do upon our rock without disgrace. 
This is its universal acknowledgment. What is it, 
but a distinct concession, that " their rock is not as 
our rock, even our enemies themselves being the 
judges." 

3. A third concession is in the frequent conversions 
which are made from the world to the religion of the 
Gospel, while there are no corresponding conversions, 
back from this religion to the world. On the one 
side, there are uncounted millions. The history of 
mankind, ever since the actual coming of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, presents an incessant train of such con- 
versions. Three thousand on the day of Pentecost ; 
five thousand immediately afterwards ; in the age of 
the apostles, a great multitude, more than man could 
number ! Down to our day, the work is still pro- 
gressing. There have been literally countless num- 
bers on the one side of this comparison. They have 
p2 



174 the christian's ROCK. [SER. XL 

all been deliberate conversions from the world ; each 
of them has been the personal, voluntary, determined 
forsaking of the rock of the world, for the Christian's 
rock, by one who was before on the side of the world, 
and merely loved his own. But where are the cor- 
responding conversions to be produced on the other 
side ? There are none. It is vain for the world to 
boast as instances in contradiction to this assertion, 
the victims of appetite, and self-indulgence, and folly ; 
persons, of whom itself says, they have fallen. The 
conversions of which we speak, are no yielding to the 
lures of sense, or the temptations of outward interest. 
They have been in the very face of all that the world 
could offer, as attraction or gain. The subjects of 
them have had much, often very much, to count as 
loss for Christ. They have been required to suffer 
much in coming to Christ. The very invitation which 
was given them to follow him, specified the taking up 
a cross for his sake. Their expectation was the en- 
durance of persecutions with his people. And in the 
face of all this, these children of the world, who loved 
the world, and whom the world loved, have chosen 
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than 
to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ; esteeming 
the reproach of Christ greater riches than the trea- 
sures of the world. Now we ask for such instances 
as corresponding on the side of the world ; instances 
of those who from conviction and judgment, have for- 
saken the service of Jesus Christ, and gone back again 
to the world. We ask for those who have done it, 
not to gratify sensual appetite, but against their pre- 
sent worldly interest. We ask not for those who 
have fallen from a high profession, and have become 



SER. XI. j THE CHRISTIAN'S ROCK. 175 

despised by the very world, to which they have re- 
turned, but for those who have been purified, elevated, 
ennobled in their character, by the change ; or, at least, 
have not been lowered in their standard of character. 
But all the world produces not a single one. Mil- 
lions of its votaries have forsaken it for Christ, and 
they have shined in the world with a new and glorious 
light, and been crowned with a real and undeniable 
excellence of character, as the result of their conver- 
sion. In each of these cases, the world has given up 
a separate child to the Saviour's service, and made a 
new concession to his worth. Not one of the real 
disciples of Christ has ever forsaken him for the love 
of the present world ; nor one professed disciple, who 
has not, in the acknowledgment of the world to which 
he has returned, fallen, when he made the change of 
which it boasts. How remarkable is the concession 
which the world thus makes, that " their rock is not 
as our rock." 

4. A fourth concession, is in the remarkable, and 
almost universal fact, that worldly men desire to turn 
to the religion of the Gospel, in all their hours of dis- 
tress. They reject it in their prosperity, and say 
they will not hear. But when sorrow visits their 
habitation, or sickness lays hold of their body, or 
death standeth at the door, they call for the very 
ministrations which they have so long despised. But 
if the Gospel be really valueless, why do they ask for 
its offices now ? Why cannot worldly pleasure re- 
lieve their sorrow, or worldly gain console their dis- 
quietude ? They have been, thus far, building upon 
their own rock ; why do they now forsake it, and cry 
out for some other ground of hope ? Is not this a 



176 the christian's ROCK. [SER. XI 

distinct acknowledgment, that " their rock is not as 
our rock?" But while this is the general course of 
worldly men in hours of distress in life, still more 
universally do they ask for the ministrations of the 
Gospel, in the hour of death. Here, they all want, 
and almost all ask for, the comforts and promises 
which Jesus gives. But upon their own principles, 
how mean, how consciously weak, is this concession ? 
Why do they not brave out the difficulty ? Why do 
they not strew the dying bed with flowers, and wake 
the songs of mirth, and the music of the dance, around 
the chamber of death? Why do they not call for 
their companions in pleasure or gain, and make the 
transition from life, as easy and as delightsome as has 
been the passage through it? O, it is a mocking at 
distress; they cannot do it. There is a majesty in an 
approaching Deity which they cannot resist. There 
is a poverty in a world which has been tried, which 
they cannot deny. Their very souls sicken at the re- 
collections of it. 

O, pleasures past, what are ye now, 
But thorns about my bleeding- brow ? 
Spectres that hover round my brain, 
And mock and aggravate my pain. 

The rock upon which they have attempted to main- 
tain themselves, sinks beneath them. They are left 
to float in the ocean, distressed, despairing, struggling 
for life, and crying out with heart-rending exclama- 
tions, " O, lead me to the rock that is higher than I." 
But what means all this change of purpose, and de- 
sire, and judgment, so common in the men of this 
world, under the circumstances which I have de- 
scribed ? Is it not on the part of the world, one of 



SER. XL] THE CHRISTIAN'S ROCK. 177 

the most marked and decided of all possible conces- 
sions to the truth of our present text? No dying 
Christian was ever deserted by his beloved Lord. No 
departing believer ever called for the world to come 
in, to supply his wants, because the Saviour in whom 
he trusted, had neglected and forsaken him. Millions 
of dying sinners have besought, often with deep an- 
guish have besought the Saviour, for a comfort which 
the world has proved totally unable to supply. How 
important and distinct is this acknowledgment ! How 
manifest in it is the concession, which the world makes 
to the worth of the religion of the Gospel, in the 
most momentous circumstances in which the issue be- 
tween them can be tried ! 

These are some of the concessions which the world 
makes, that their rock is not as our rock. This is 
the testimony which we adduce, as sufficient to sus- 
tain the comparison we have made. Our enemies are 
the judges. We argue the case before the consciences 
and perceptions of unconverted men. We hesitate 
not to leave the decision with their conscience, relying 
upon the manifestation of the truth in the sight of God. 

III. Let us sum up the conclusion of this case, in 
a more direct application of it to our personal cha- 
racter and choice. 

Let its consideration lead all of you who have 
built upon the Christian's rock, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
to be steadfast, and fear not. O, place your entire 
confidence here ! When sickness visits you in your 
lonely chamber, think of your rock, and commune 
with him in your own heart in renewed faith, and be 
still. When distress comes upon you, think of your 
rock, and fly for shelter there. God will hide you in 

23 



178 the christian's ROCK. [SER. XI. 

its cleft, until every danger be overpassed. When 
the shadows of death gather around you, O forget not 
your rock ; it will be all you want, all you can want 
forever. Be still, and wait in the calmness of an 
humble clinging to Christ, to see the salvation which 
God will bring to you, in that day. "Whatever out- 
ward storms may threaten or harass you, there will 
always be repose and comfort here. You cannot 
rely upon Jesus too entirely, or too confidently be- 
lieve that he will bless you forever. Honour your 
Lord, by unshaken trust in his power to save. Cast 
yourselves wholly, humbly, and cheerfully upon him, 
and make him your rock indeed ; your fortress, your 
high tower, into which you may run and be safe. 

Let this subject persuade all before me, to build 
upon this glorious rock in time. Full salvation is 
offered to the world, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Who- 
soever cometh unto him, shall in no wise be cast out. 
In him, and with all who are in him, the Father is 
well pleased. The worth of his promises you see 
continually acknowledged. The very world which, 
with its indulgences, tempts you for your ruin, in its 
concessions and failures, warns you to flee for your 
life. If you are convinced of your necessity, you 
are condemned out of your own mouth, for your re- 
fusal of salvation. If you attend upon the services 
of religion, and still reject the Saviour who is offered 
there, you are still condemned. In every such feeling 
and act, you acknowledge the worth of a Gospel 
which you still refuse. O, build upon this rock in 
time. You will not always have the time. Escape 
from the opposing one while there is hope. There 
will not always be hope. Make full proof of your 
privileges, and your salvation sure. 



SERMON XII. 



A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 



Amos viii. 11, 12. — Behold the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will 
send a famine in the land; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water ; 
but of hearing the word of the Lord. And they shall wander from sea 
to sea, and from the north even to the east ,- they shall run to and fro, to 
seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. 

It is a characteristic principle of divine warnings, 
that the woes which they denounce upon guilty men, 
generally consist in the mere withdrawal of abused 
privileges, and the desertion of men to gain their own 
ends, in their own ways. So very distinct and de- 
termined is the tendency of the human heart to an 
entire and eternal alienation from God; so incurable by 
any self-possessed power, is the spirit of its rebellion 
and hostility against God ; so certain is the progress of 
the unconverted soul, from iniquity unto iniquity, down 
to that death which is the wages of sin, that if man be 
only left to himself, unrestrained from on high, and un- 
assisted by divine power, he becomes inevitably de- 
stroyed. There needs nothing for his everlasting ruin, 
but that God should let him alone. If he deprive him 
of the life-giving power of his Spirit, and of the blessed 

179 



180 A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. [SER. XII. 

instruments of his appointment through which this 
Spirit acts for his salvation ; and exercise no positive 
energy of his grace to rescue him from destruction, all 
is done that need be done to make this destruction 
sure, and without a remedy. As directly as the stone 
seeks the centre of the earth, under the power of gra- 
vitation, does the unconverted soul sink into the dark- 
ness of everlasting despair and condemnation, under 
the unrestrained influence of its own purposes and de- 
sires. Accordingly, Almighty God threatens nothing, 
and does nothing, more directly and dreadfully calcu- 
lated to consign the ungodly to eternal misery, than 
to forsake them with his grace, and to suffer them to 
fill themselves with their own ways. It need never 
be said, that he casts the sinner into hell. Let him 
only depart from him, and exert no special power to 
arrest and save him, and he sinks there of himself. 
He remains, and must remain forever, a sinner against 
God ; and as such, he must be forever the victim of 
unalleviated, unchangeable despair. 

As a practical illustration of this principle, you find 
the Scriptures warning men of their dangers in an 
unconverted state, under the simple idea and shape 
of destitution and want. God departs from them, 
leaves them, forsakes them, hides his face from 
them, lets them alone; and they thus gain the 
punishment which their guilt deserves, as the har- 
vest of their own sowing, and the fruit of their own 
planting. This principle forms the point upon which 
the warning of our present text is rested. Famine, 
with all its attendant, multiform evils, is the simple 
result of continued want and deprivation. And if 
God withholds his rain and his snow from heaven, all 



SER. XII.] A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 181 

its horrors come upon man without any direct effort 
or act on his part to confirm or increase it. Apply- 
ing this shape of illustration in our text, the Lord 
God proclaims to sinful men, the result of their negli- 
gence of his grace, and contempt of the spiritual mer- 
cies, which have been long continued to them in vain. 
He announces no direct infliction of positive punish- 
ment from his hand, like the fire which should con- 
sume them, or the pestilence which should cut them 
down. He simply declares, that he " will send a 
famine among them, a famine of hearing the words of 
the Lord;" that he will withdraw all direct spiritual 
interposition, and leave them to the barrenness of 
their own nature ; that they shall no more hear the 
word of the Lord, which they have despised; and 
shall find themselves to pine, and waste, and perish, 
under its loss ; that they shall wander unsatisfied, in 
search of nourishment and food for their souls, under 
the simple withholding, on his part, of privileges 
which they have so much neglected and abused. This 
address, though made to the Israelites, is as applicable 
to all who have received the privileges of a revelation 
from God. "With them, it has been fearfully accom- 
plished. Its fulfilment with ourselves, must depend 
upon our improvement or abuse of the privileges we 
enjoy. 

This spiritual famine, I design to make the sub- 
ject for your present consideration. I would speak, 

I. Of the evils of it. 

II. Of the facts which constitute it. 

III. Of the circumstances which lead to it. 

IV. Of the way in which it is to be avoided. 
I. In speaking of the evils of a spiritual famine, com 

Q 



182 A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. [SER. XII. 

paratively little need be said. The Lord denounces it 
in our text, as a curse, and a punishment. He speaks 
of it as far more dreadful than a famine of bread, 
and a thirst for water ; that is, as more to be feared 
and avoided, than the worst sufferings of the body, 
and the earthly estate of man. This is simply upon 
the Saviour's principle, that the one kills the body, 
and after that hath no more that it can do, while the 
other casts both soul and body into hell. Man lives 
not by bread only, but by the words which proceed 
out of the mouth of the Lord. His present life of 
years or days, is sustained by bodily food. But this 
is not worthy to be called life, so soon passeth it 
away, and he is gone. His real life, the life of his 
spirit, the existence of his immortal part, is to be 
supported only by the words of the Lord. It is fed 
by communications of divine grace. It is sustained, 
invigorated, and made happy, by those precious reve- 
lations of truth, which the word of the Lord con- 
tains. The soul of man lives upon an appropriated 
Saviour, with whom its life is hid in security with 
God, and from whose fulness it receives grace upon 
grace. Give to the soul of man, as its own posses- 
sion, all that the word of the Lord reveals, the new 
created image of the holy God which it offers, the 
completeness that is found in Christ which it pro- 
claims, the exceeding great and precious promises 
which it unfolds ; and you shelter that soul in ever- 
lasting security, and feed it upon the living and life- 
giving bread, in the strength of which it may rejoice 
throughout eternity. Take from the soul of man, 
this heavenly nourishment which giveth life unto the 
world, and you leave it a prey to the gnawing of 



SER. XII.] A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 183 

eternal want, and the mere vessel of eternal wrath 
and anguish. Nothing can supply to it the place of the 
incorruptible word of God. 

The full evils of this spiritual famine, the result of 
an entire loss of the word of the Lord, this world 
cannot display; nor can man, in his present state, 
apprehend them. You have no power adequately to 
conceive them, nor I to describe them. You must 
pass from the confines of the present life, to gain this 
awful view. Follow the unconverted, lost soul, to its 
chamber of final despair. See it there, dark, and 
lonely, and unpitied; sitting in solitude, among mil- 
lions like itself; renewing daily its embittered regrets 
over the folly of a life of wasted privileges which has 
passed ; in the gloomy pinings of introverted obser- 
vation, feeding only upon its own recollections of un- 
necessary guilt ; groaning in anguish, over the remem- 
brance of days of mercy unimproved ; yet groaning 
in more bitter anguish, that they cannot be forgotten ; 
crying in sorrow, where there is no sympathy ; utter- 
ing its piercing complaints to ears, too filled with the 
sounds of personal distress, to hear the lamentations 
which others make ; lingering on in this perpetual 
starvation; shrinking, pining, under the wrath of a 
neglected God ; dying an eternal death ; seeking for 
an end that never comes ; longing, struggling, for an 
annihilation which is impossible ; and all this, spread 
out through eternity, as the necessary condition of a 
sinner who has compelled God to leave him alone ; 
there, O there, you find a spiritual famine, exhibiting 
its real evils, and shewing its actual, mature character. 
And is it for this, my brethren, that foolish men reject 
the claims of religion and a Saviour, because they are 



184 A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. [SER. XII. 

supposed to be hard and burdensome ? Is it to take 
up such an eternity in weeping, and wailing, and 
gnashing of teeth, that the unrenewed man casts from 
him the invitations of the Gospel, continues to live 
without God in the world, and turns away his ear 
and his heart from the law of truth? O, how won- 
derful is such a choice ! How wonderful would it be, 
if the alternative were really unrelieved distress for 
the w T hole period of the present life ! How much 
better will it be for you to endure with Christ and for 
Christ's sake, the utmost extreme of present suffering 
and persecution, than to inherit the least part of these 
woes of a sinner who dies without a Saviour ; these 
final evils of a spiritual famine ! Yet Jesus calls you 
to no such suffering. He gives in this life, peace 
which passeth understanding; while he promises in 
the life to come, the fulness of joy, and pleasures for- 
evermore. The soul which in its real conversion unto 
God, receives him, feeds upon heavenly food for time 
and for eternity; and in both, nourished and supported 
by divine power, enjoys the entire and happy contrast, 
to the evils of a spiritual famine. 

II. I would speak of the facts which constitute a 
spiritual famine. The evils which attend it, are de- 
veloped only in the fearful consummations of another 
world. The facts which make it up, are facts of 
man's experience here. To these I now refer. It is 
described in our text as " a famine of hearing the 
words of the Lord;" and it is exhibited as so entire 
and overspreading, that the men who suffer it, wander 
through the whole length and breadth of the land, in 
search of the spiritual food which they need, without 
success. 



SER. XII.] A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 185 

To constitute such a famine, both in appearance 
and in fact, there will be found, sometimes, an entire 
removal from a people, of all the ordinances and pri- 
vileges of the Gospel, that only life-giving word of 
God. The history of the Christian world abounds 
with instances of this, when, as a direct punishment 
for the abuse of the privileges of the Gospel, by those 
who have enjoyed its light without improving' it, God 
has removed the candlestick out of its place, and the 
immoralities of absolute imposture and falsehood, or 
the superstition and darkness of a total corruption 
of Christianity, have been allowed to occupy the 
entire place which the bright kingdom of the Saviour's 
truth had filled before. The face of the nominal Chris- 
tian world in its eighteen centuries of exhibition, has 
presented numerous illustrations of this remark. And 
young as this land is in its Christian history, there are 
already facts in its record, exhibiting a removal of the 
ordinances and provisions of the Gospel, from por- 
tions of its community, almost as entire. Such a re- 
moval of the appointed instruments of salvation, con- 
stitutes a spiritual famine. Men cannot believe in 
him, of whom they do not hear, nor hear without a 
preacher. 

Next to this, there is found often, a withdrawal 
from a community who still retain the name, if not 
the external form of Christianity, the preaching of the 
Gospel in its peculiar truths. An entire defection from 
the vital doctrines and principles of Christianity, is 
suffered to take place among large bodies of professed 
Christians, as the simple result of a failure in the im- 
provement of the blessings which were thus bestowed. 
What numbers in our day have sunk down into the 
Q2 24 



186 A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. [SER. XII. 

frozen depths of Socinianism in actual profession; 
nay, verging apparently upon the very border of 
Atheism ; who once possessed and neglected the 
blessed offering of a pure Gospel ! What numbers 
in the retaining of a theoretical orthodoxy, have filled 
the pulpit with the morals of Seneca, to the exclusion 
of the crucified Christ, whom Paul preached ! So 
that within the limits of our knowledge of men around 
us, there are thousands who never hear of the revealed 
way of divine salvation ; and who, in regard to all pe- 
culiarities in the doctrine of the Gospel, are as much 
in a famine of the word of the Lord, as if absolute 
heathenism had reared its temple, and they had gather- 
ed for the worship of its gods. Multitudes around 
us, hear no more of man's conversion by the Spirit 
of God, or of his justification in the perfect righteous- 
ness of Christ, than if there was not a preacher of the 
truth of God standing upon our soil. Now, what- 
ever privileges may elsewhere be found among us, 
this is, for them, a spiritual famine, almost as entire 
as is to be found in lands without even the form of 
the Gospel. And while faith cometh by hearing, and 
hearing by the word of God, it is as certain a prepa- 
ration for all the evils of a spiritual famine, as if the 
bread of God could nowhere be found. 

Next to this, in fact, if not in appearance, is there 
a spiritual famine, when, though the truth of God be 
still proclaimed, there is no power communicated from 
above, to carry it with life-giving efficacy to the souls 
of men. Sinful men are to be sanctified and made 
holy through the truth ; but it is God who sanctifies 
them. And if they waste the opportunities which he 
affords them to gain this spiritual increase, or if he 



SEE,. XII.] A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 187 

withhold the power of his grace, Paul plants, and 
Apollos waters, in vain. How often, how persever- 
ingly sometimes, is Christ preached among men, as 
the wisdom of God, and the power of God, when no 
heart yields to the sacred message, and no soul is 
born for God, under the operation of the truth ! Men 
have wearied God with their sins, and made him to 
serve with their iniquities, until he has arisen and de- 
parted from them. They have turned the grace of 
God into licentiousness, and have corrupted the prac- 
tice of religion with a conformity to the course of 
this world, until, it would seem, that if Noah, Daniel, 
and Job were among them, these should but deliver 
their own souls by their righteousness ; men around 
should not be benefited or blessed by them. Now, 
whatever appearance there may be of church order, 
or spiritual authority connected with it, this is a real 
famine of the word of the Lord. All that was nour- 
ishing and saving in the dispensation of the Gospel, 
has been separated from it, and the preaching of it 
now, is without effect. There is no going forth of 
religion in its progress to spiritual conquests. No 
gathering souls are enquiring with eagerness, the way 
to glory and to God. Coldness, and lethargy, and 
spiritual apathy and slumber creep over the minds, 
and bind up the affections of men. They hear with- 
out feeling, almost without consciousness. They are 
exhorted without effect. The good seed is choked 
and destroyed, before it can spring up to bring forth 
its fruit ; and no converted souls rise up to give the 
glory of the work of grace to God. Under such cir- 
cumstances, as far as it regards the real, spiritual con- 
dition of men, whatever soundness, or spirituality, or 



188 A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. [SER. XII. 

ardour may characterize the preacher, there is a spi- 
ritual famine among the people ; and the evils of it, 
in their dreadful aggregate, will come upon perishing 
souls. This is sent by the Lord of hosts as a punish- 
ment for man's iniquity, a recompense for the neglect 
and abuse of a life-giving Gospel. The word no 
longer profits, because it is not mixed with faith in 
them that hear. And men pine and perish in this 
spiritual atrophy, though the food which ought to give 
them life, and which would have done it before they 
were so hopelessly diseased, is still abundant. O, 
what numbers among us are thus suffering all the in- 
cipient evils of spiritual famine ! Their cold, and 
careless, and dead souls, are sinking down to eternal 
sorrow. Bread from heaven lies all around their 
tents, and they tread it under their feet, but will not 
gather and eat it. God is sending them a strong de- 
lusion, that they should believe a lie, because they 
take pleasure in unrighteousness. The days of final 
and entire desertion are rapidly coming on for them ; 
days when they shall wander to and fro for spiritual 
bread, and shall not find it ; when they shall desire to 
see the days of the Son of Man, in vain ; when they shall 
utter the exceeding strong and bitter cry of rejected 
Esau, " wilt thou not bless me, even me also," and 
find no merciful response; when no place shall be 
found for repentance in the Judge by whom they are 
condemned, though they " seek it carefully with 
tears." In the dark hours which lead down to death, 
and the far darker hours which lead on after it, they 
are preparing to find, in the entire deprivation of 
spiritual comfort and safety, the real character, and 
the real result, of a famine of the word of the Lord. 



SER. XII.] A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 189 

III. I would speak of the circumstances which 
lead to this spiritual famine. Some of these are cer- 
tainly on the side of the preacher of the word. And 
if I were addressing the company of preachers, it 
would be my duty to enlarge upon them. When 
there is in the pulpit, a hiding of the light of the 
Gospel; when, 

Though Paul may serve him with a text, 
Yet Epictetus, Plato, Tully, preach ; 

when, in the exalting of inferior things, and in negli- 
gence of greater, Christ is thrust from his own sanc- 
tuary, and some other name predominates, and some 
other master is served ; the preacher leads on to a 
famine of the word of the Lord. Wo unto them by 
whom such offences come ! But to this large class 
of circumstances, I cannot now particularly refer. 
My duty at this time, is to warn and admonish those 
who now listen to me ; and to point out the facts 
among us, and perceived by us, which are likely to 
lead to a famine of the saving truth of the Gospel — 
facts which, to a great extent, are found among all 
bodies of professing Christians, and which especially 
concern us, in the communion to which we belong. 

Among these, I name first, the spirit of sectarian 
division and controversy ; the fondness for partisan 
warfare among the various denominations of the 
church of Christ, which is so exceedingly manifest. 
If there is an aspect of religious things in the present 
day, over which the soul of a true Christian must 
sicken, it is this fruitless disposition to magnify out- 
ward distinctions above spiritual realities. Whether 
a man be found on one side or the other, of some un- 
certain, arbitrary line of difference, seems in some 



190 A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. [SER. XII. 

minds, to be of more consequence, and to be more 
considered, than whether he be as a converted, or an 
unconverted man, a child of God, or a child of the evil 
one. This dividing spirit appears to be a charac- 
teristic of a portion of all Christian denominations in 
the present day. And when all the people of God 
should be thoroughly united in the great controversy 
of the Lord with sin, the strength of numbers is di- 
verted in the attempt to depreciate, if not to destroy, 
others, because they follow not with them. The in- 
dulgence of this dividing spirit, leads directly to a 
spiritual famine. I believe Satan could in no way be 
better served or pleased, than to have every pulpit in 
the land occupied thus. While all time, and tongues, 
and talents, are given to this work of self-exaltation, 
and mutual depreciation, Christ is put out of view, 
and the result of persisting in it, will be the extin- 
guishing of the light of Gospel truth in the land. As 
far as my voice may have influence, I would urge you 
to watch against this sectarian spirit, as leading di- 
rectly to a banishment of the Gospel. Rejoice when 
Christ is preached. Rejoice when the numbers mul- 
tiply who preach him. Rejoice if God confirms his 
word with the power of his grace. Allow not your- 
selves to be pleased with expressions of hostile or 
contemptuous feelings in reference to other classes of 
the followers of Christ. Contend only for the pre- 
cious faith of the Gospel, and for that only with the 
spirit and the mind of Christ. 

Another circumstance leading to a spiritual famine, 
is a conformity among professing Christians, to the 
course of this world. I do not mean to touch that 
deluding question, " to what extent may we go in the 



SER. XII.] A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 191 

giddiness of this world ?" a question, which in the 
hands of a skilful enemy, leads off the point of divi- 
sion, till man has passed far beyond it. The point of 
sinful conformity to the world, however difficult to 
mark out in a circumstantial, calculating theory, is 
quick and open to the perception of conscience, and 
to the decisions of the common sense of men. And 
it is a manifest violation of both, to say that a spiritual 
mind may be carried, or found, in the gay and bril- 
liant assemblies of the thoughtless children of the 
world, where the mention even of the name of Deity, 
save in the idle exclamation of the unsanctified mind, 
would be counted an intrusion, and rejected as in- 
tolerable. Such scenes in human society, though 
elevated, and attractive, and refined, according to the 
standard of the world, are the abode and nursery of 
undisguised hostility to Christ. And it exhibits a 
state of coldness in religion, and indifference to the 
respectability of religion, little less than shocking, 
when the professed participant in the body and blood 
of the Lord avows himself to find nothing in them, 
incompatible with the life and power of his devotion. 
This practical betrayal and wounding of the Saviour 
in the house of his friends, leads directly to a spiritual 
famine. In the individual, it is found to be, not the 
attendant, but the alternative of religion. If it pro- 
gresses as the spirit of the professed religious com- 
munity, it results in a simple and confirmed sacrifice 
of the life-giving power of the Gospel, for the mere 
friendship of the world, which is enmity with God. 
The spirit of prayer faints and dies. The meetings 
of Christians for prayer, flag and fail. The cold and 
haughty temper of the world stands with its proud 



192 A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. [SER. XII. 

feet to rule the sanctuary. And however faithful, 
and bold, and persevering, may be the watchman upon 
the walls, the people take no warning, and he but de- 
livers his own soul. Principles and habits of this de- 
structive character, like poison in a fountain, are sent 
down in every family stream. And God withdraws 
every gift of his Spirit from a people, who thus 
strengthen each other in their sins, and say in the 
pride of their boasting, " we are delivered to do all 
these abominations." 

An unbelieving rejection of the spiritual claims of 
the Gospel, and a misimprovement of the mercies which 
a Saviour bestows, lead a people with certainty to this 
famine of the word of the Lord. The habit of un- 
moved and heartless hearing of the Gospel, prepares 
the way for the certain loss of all the blessings which 
the Gospel gives. It is a most fearful circumstance 
in the life and destiny of a man, if he has been long 
sitting under the preaching of the truth, and remains 
still an unchanged man. He has then, so often re- 
jected the message from God, which said to him, 
" to-day, hear my voice, and harden not your heart," 
that it has lost its power upon his conscience. He 
has resisted so many arguments of the holy Scripture, 
that he is now fenced in, and protected by his own 
embankments. And however light and giddy may be 
his worldly heart, while the present world remains 
unscathed for him, he is rapidly approaching to a wil- 
derness where there is no water, and where the whole 
staff of bread is broken. A sad and lonely place, 
indeed, he will find it. He is there without God, for 
he has driven him from his heart and thoughts. He 
is without other comfort, for it has failed and perished 



SER. XII.] A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 193 

from him, in its own decay. And he lies down to 
perish in wretched despair, simply because he rejected 
the bread of life, when it was bountifully provided, 
and it is now offered to him no more. There is found 
much in a spiritual and animated body of Christians, 
to influence the feelings and determinations of sin- 
ners around, and to call them into the fold of Christ, 
by God's employment of the power of sympathy. 
And there is much also, in a cold, and formal, and 
worldly-minded congregation, to repel the progress 
of each other towards God, and by the same power 
of sympathy to drive others back to the service of the 
world and sin. Thus as a spirit of indifference to 
the truth, of procrastination of the service of God, 
and of careless hearing of the divine message to man, 
spreads among a people, it becomes itself established 
there, and leads directly to a famine of the word of 
the Lord, for the souls over whom it reigns. 

Connected with this spirit of unbelieving indiffe- 
rence, a neglect of the appointed ordinances and in- 
stitutions of the Gospel leads to the same result. 
When the Sabbath is but little regarded ; when the 
sanctuary of God is neglected ; when the Lord's table 
is surrounded but by a few of the many to whom its 
privileges are offered ; when the assembling together 
of the people of God, either on occasions of public 
worship, or on the more private occasions of the 
evening lecture, and the meeting for prayer, is but the 
bringing of two or three in his name ; there is a rapid 
progress among a people to a total famine of the 
word of the Lord. True religion will not, cannot 
flourish among us, nor a revival of effectual, active 
piety take place, but in proportion to our eager atten- 
R 25 



194 A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. [SER. XIT. 

tion to these occasions of united worship. I would 
that all the Lord's people were prophets ; and that 
we had in every congregation, active, zealous, and 
pious laymen, to help the pastor in his work, and to 
maintain the habitual, weekly meeting for social 
prayer. It is this which draws down a blessing upon 
a people, and makes the Sabbath's preaching of the 
Gospel, effective and powerful. It is here, that the 
heavy laden find comfort, the weary refreshment, and 
all the people of God life and peace. And when 
these meetings are neglected, or opposed, among any 
people, soon all other shapes of religious service be- 
come formal and useless. Could I make the voice of my 
own experience sound throughout the whole borders 
of our church, it would be to urge all who seek the 
divine blessing, and the prosperity of our communion, 
to establish and maintain, and prize, as a chief means 
of benefit, and a chief promoter of a revival of religion, 
the habitual, social meeting of Christians, for exhort- 
ation and prayer. How many souls have found the 
blessing of the living God recorded here, for them ! 
Who hath ever opposed them, and found spiritual 
prosperity bestowed from God upon himself? 

But upon these circumstances which lead to a 
famine of the word of the Lord, I can enlarge no 
more. Consider whether they are to be found among 
yourselves. See whether the worm of sectarianism 
is eating at the heart of your religious character ; or 
the blight of worldly conformity is withering it from 
the exterior ; or the chill of indifference is binding it 
with its frost ; or the rude hand of neglect of spiritual 
duties and privileges, is plucking it roughly away. In 
all these circumstances, you will find a separate, but 



SER. XII.] A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 195 

certain introduction to that spiritual famine in which 
you will be stricken through, in want of the blessed 
fruits which have thus been despised and destroyed. 

IV. I would speak of the way in which these evils 
may be averted. Much that might well be said on 
this point, has been already anticipated. My time 
will allow me but little in addition. That little, how- 
ever, I would earnestly press upon your attention. I 
feel the danger of which I have spoken, to be an 
actual and an immediate one among us. I feel bound 
to do my poor utmost to avert it. 

I would urge you to prize highly the faithful dis- 
pensation of the word of God. If an unveiled Gos- 
pel is presented to your minds, and the Almighty 
Spirit of God is ready to apply it to your hearts, 
learn to estimate it, as the happiest, and the most im- 
portant distinction of your lives; never undervalue 
the precious blessing of having the truth of God 
spoken to you, as in the sight of God who searcheth 
the hearts, however humbling or alarming may be 
many of its declarations. If the ministers of Christ 
ask their counsel of him, and not of the lusts of men ; 
if they draw their arguments and motives from 
eternity, without any truckling to the course of this 
world, they may often appear to ungodly men, as 
Elijah did to Ahab, as men that trouble Israel. The 
proud hearts and wills of unsubdued sinners always 
kick against the truth, and always resist the Holy 
Ghost. Faithful ministers are not alarmed, or sur- 
prised at this. My brethren, be not you among this 
number of opposers. If the men of God dare to 
save you, in defiance of your own esteem of them, 
prize and honour such ministrations, as God's chief 



196 A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. [SER. XII. 

blessing to you. Encourage them, hold up their 
hands, defend their efforts in doing good, and bless 
God, that your eyes are permitted to look upon, and 
your ears to listen to teachers, whom he has made 
faithful in all his house. 

I would entreat you to pray for the success of the 
word of God. Its great object is, the conversion of 
the ungodly, and the restoration of this fallen world 
to God. Let this object in all its magnitude and im- 
portance, be kept before you. In private and in 
public prayer, seek from God the power of his grace, 
to attend and bless the preaching of his truth. The 
great instrument for the use of which he has commis- 
sioned his ministry, and by which he will save the 
world, is what men may call the foolishness of preach- 
ing. The more spiritual, constant, and bold are the 
preachers of the Gospel, the more abundantly will 
the world be blessed. But all the power to bless 
must come from God. To him, therefore, learn to 
look habitually, and earnestly, for his blessing upon 
the labours of his ministers. Let all the hearts 
among us that have found access unto God in an ac- 
cepted Saviour, cry unto him, for the demonstration 
of his Spirit, and divine power, to carry home the 
truth to those who hear it, that multitudes may be 
brought in to be with us, on the side of the Son of 
David, in this ungodly world. And whether within 
the limits of your own special congregation, or amidst 
the necessities of the world abroad, your hearts and 
thoughts be at any time fixed, O pray for the success 
of the word of God, in the Gospel of his Son, in the 
conversion of the lost, from the power of Satan unto 
him. 



SER. XII.] A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 197 

I would press upon you, to profit yourselves by the 
publication of the Gospel. Seek the conversion, the 
sanctification, the edifying of your own souls under 
its influence. Your days of grace are precious. Pre- 
cious to you, is every offer of a Saviour's love, every 
awakening admonition of the Spirit of grace, every 
dispensation of the truth which makes men free, 
every Sabbath's privilege, every hour of prayer. O, 
suffer not your opportunities to pass, and your hearts 
to remain unaffected, and cold, and alienated from 
God, amidst such dispensations of divine mercy. It 
is high time you had all awaked out of sleep, and 
were found in a new birth of the Spirit, accepted be- 
fore God, and sheltered in the provisions of his love. 
Trifle no longer with the proffers of divine grace. O 
cast in your lot even now, with a waiting Saviour. 
Return with him to that Father's house, where there 
is bread enough and to spare, and where you shall 
find eternal life for your souls. And in the certain 
hope, which is the privilege of his people, the assured 
salvation which is covenanted to them in the sufferings 
and obedience of their great Redeemer, bread shall be 
given you, and living water shall be sure forever. 



r2 



SERMON XIII. 



LITTLE SINS. 



Genesis xix. 20. — Is it not a little one ? and my soul shall live. 

Our blessed Lord lays it down as a principle of 
human conduct, and of human responsibility, " he 
that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in 
much ; and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also 
in much." Though a man start back, and shrink 
from great transgressions, if he allow himself in 
known offences against God, which appear to him of 
a smaller character, he manifests that the spirit and 
disposition of his heart are still guilty, and opposed 
to God. The claims of true piety and obedience not 
only require that we should be kept back from pre- 
sumptuous sins, but that we should be cleansed also 
from secret faults. 

The incident connected with our text, may be 
viewed as an illustration of this. Lot hesitated in 
an entire and thorough obedience of the divine com- 
mands, and would have compromised with their claims 
upon him, by the offer of an inferior submission. He 
had come out of Sodom, as God had directed him. 

198 



SER. XIII.] LITTLE SINS. 199 

But when the heavenly messengers had brought him 
forth abroad, and said, " escape for thy life, look not 
behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain ; escape 
to the mountain, lest thou be consumed;" he hesitated 
in following out their earnest address. He had shewed 
himself willing to obey to a certain extent. But he 
was not willing to obey to the utmost extent of the 
requisition. He answered to the angel, " O, not so, 
my Lord ! behold now this city is near to flee unto ; 
and it is a little one. Let me escape thither. Is it 
not a little one ? and my soul shall live." God would 
teach him by his own experience, and for a little while 
endured with his folly, that he might learn how poor 
a refuge his sinful heart had selected for himself. The 
result was as the Lord designed it. He was soon 
glad to escape from the little city which he had se- 
lected, and which had been spared for a time, for his 
sake, to the mountain which the Lord had pointed 
out. 

Lot stands before us as an example and testimony; 
and it is the principle which is displayed in this illus- 
tration, of which I wish to speak. I see in the inci- 
dent, a principle which is exhibited in the conduct 
and character of multitudes, who profess to be the ser- 
vants of God, and who attempt to cover up transgres- 
sions because they are esteemed little, and pass over 
faults which they deem of little consequence, in the 
hope that their souls shall live. But it is a principle 
which will be found in all cases as great a mistake in 
calculation, as it was in the case connected with our 
text. An inattention to those which are considered 
small things in religion ; a disregard to the guilt of 
those which are supposed to be little sins; and an 



200 LITTLE SINS. [SER. XIII. 

allowed commission of these sins, on the ground that 
they are of inferior consequence ; are the source of 
vast evil, and of vast danger to the souls of men. 
However long endured, they are uniformly found at 
last, a Zoar, in which the soul of man cannot live. 
The evil and danger of this inattention to little things 
in the cultivation of religious character, is a subject 
which I propose now to consider. 

The men of this world understand the necessity of 
a vigilant attention to the smaller outlets of waste, in 
order to the attainment of success and prosperity, in 
earthly pursuits. It is deemed a wise proverb in their 
affairs, " take care of your pence, and your pounds 
will take care of themselves." They will ask for no 
surer indication of a spendthrift, than the habitual 
contempt of little things, in the system upon which 
the business of life is conducted. Negligence in this 
respect, will go far towards clothing a man with rags. 
Diligence, assiduity, and persevering economy in 
small expenses, not disjoined from a spirit of libe- 
rality and kindness to the needy, have raised multi- 
tudes, who had no remarkable share of natural talents, 
and no peculiar experience of what the world calls 
good fortune, to the highest posts of earthly influence 
and honour. 

This is equally the principle of certain success in 
the concerns of the soul. There must be in that 
merchandise which is better than silver, to which the 
heart and thoughts of the real Christian are directed, 
and to an interest in which the hearts of all are in- 
vited in the Gospel, the very same attention to mat- 
ters which are too often considered trifling and in- 
different. The most lamentable consequences in a 



SER. XIII.] LITTLE SINS. 201 

Christian's life often date their origin from some small 
act which is suffered to grow into a principle ; from 
some incidental occurrence which ministered tempta- 
tions that were heedlessly encouraged; or from a 
failure in habitual watchfulness in something which 
was considered unimportant in its influence. The 
conflagration which fills the proudest city with deso- 
lation and ruin, was in its first appearance, a little 
spark, which a single drop of water would have easily 
extinguished. The storm which covers the face of the 
heavens with its blackness, and pours its torrents of 
devastation upon the earth, was seen in its incipient 
state, to arise a little cloud out of the sea, like a 
man's hand. Thus will it be found also, in the most 
destructive concessions in a Christian's life. The 
unheeded lusts of the eye, the disregarded risings of 
mental passion, the momentary excitement and in- 
dulgence of sensual appetite, only serve to lay open 
a way which will continually widen, to habitual trans- 
gression, irreparable loss, and even the final destruc- 
tion of the soul. You may as easily set bounds to 
the flowing of the sea, and in the tempest's raging, 
command the swelling wave to stop its course, as 
arrest the triumphant progress which you have given 
by indulgence, to a headstrong lust, and say, "hitherto 
shalt thou come, but no farther." The man who will 
walk with God in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, 
must fix his unremitted and suspicious inspection upon 
the smallest incidents of his life ; and test the power 
of his principles, by the minuteness of application, 
to which they can be carried. If a man finds that 
he is not always a religious man ; if he perceives that 
the great principles by which he professes to be 

26 



202 LITTLE SINS. [SER. XIII. 

governed, are not habitually carried out, he will un- 
doubtedly find the reason, and the commencement of 
the deficiency which he laments, in the point of warn- 
ing and experience of which we are now speaking. 
It will be instructive and useful to us to look into this 
subject more minutely. 

1. This inattention to little things will be discovered 
in the frequent excitements of a naturally irritable 
temper. That ardour of temperament which gives 
the ability for great achievements, opens also the 
source of great sorrows. It is a strong man armed, 
which no power but the Spirit of God can spoil and 
bind; and which often breaks loose, even from the 
constraint of his hand. It requires a much larger 
measure of divine influence to produce in a heart of 
this strongly marked character, any desired effect of 
submission to the will of God. And there must be 
allowed to such an one, the enjoyment of comfort in 
reflection upon the work of the Spirit, from a much 
smaller amount of positive evidence than can be as- 
sumed as sufficient, where there were fewer ob- 
stacles to overcome. This excitable temper, in the 
full sanctification of the soul by the divine Spirit, is 
to be transformed into the mind of a little child. The 
Christian, to whose lot a contest with such a spirit 
has been assigned, must not be satisfied until the lion 
has been not only chained within his den, but actually 
transformed in his nature, to a lamb. Inattention to 
this development of individual character, opens a 
breach for probable final destruction and loss. Our 
trials of temper are usually found in small incidents ; 
chiefly in the little and private concerns of domestic 
life. How many do we see, who can sustain with an 



SER. XIII.] LITTLE SINS. 203 

unmurmuring fortitude, the severest pressure of afflic- 
tion and pain ; who can glorify God in fires which 
burn with a fearful strength ; who can lie long on the 
bed of suffering, and have many of the dearest objects 
of human affection, taken successively from them, 
without complaint; who yet will allow themselves 
through mere inadvertence, to be extravagantly ex- 
cited, by the impertinence of an inferior, or by the 
worrying of a fly ; like the elephant, whose skin can 
resist the force of the musket ball, but is said to be 
goaded to madness by the sting of the musquito. 
What is the reason of this singular difference in their 
endurance of trials, except the single fact, that they 
gathered up all their strength in watchfulness against 
the greater difficulty, but were heedless and unguarded 
on the arrival of the less? Such inattention, my 
brethren, is the parent of much sin, and of much sor- 
row. It uniformly opens the way to backsliding from 
God. It wounds the conscience, until it becomes 
seared and hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 
It destroys the conscious influence of the character 
for good to others, until sometimes, under the morti- 
fication of this loss, even the profession of piety is 
laid aside. It degenerates into a proud and peevish 
state of mind and feeling, far too turbulent for a 
dwelling place for the calm Spirit of eternal peace. 
If in this point, I am speaking to the conscience of 
any of my hearers, I would speak the language of 
anxious warning and affectionate admonition; lan- 
guage, the necessity of which, deep experience has 
taught. Esteem nothing of this kind a little thing. 
There is no " little one" opened as a refuge here. Do 
not flatter yourselves that the life of the soul can be 



204, LITTLE SINS. [SER. XIII. 

maintained, while this point is compromised and 
covered, or while your increasing watchfulness is not 
solemnly directed against it. 

2. This disregard of little things will be exhibited 
in the many small and unnecessary indulgences, 
which Christians too often allow themselves for 
appetite or ease. How often are such indulgences 
made the substance of a permanent and unchangeable 
habit ! We see many who are never positively in- 
temperate, nor extravagant perhaps, in their gratifica- 
tions, who yet perceive no evil, in providing for every 
desire however foolish, and perhaps hurtful, its de- 
manded object. They have no practical knowledge 
of any system of self-denial, in following the steps of 
Jesus, their professed Lord. They cannot specify 
any cross which they have taken up to honour him. 
The marks of unqualified worldliness, of undisguised 
intemperance, may be supposed to be far off, and the 
habits of life may yet be so allied to them, in prin- 
ciple, and in spirit, and in tendency, that the distance 
may be much greater in appearance than in reality. 
The man who sets out with the principle of allowing 
himself every indulgence which is not known to be 
unlawful, will inevitably find himself, before he has 
gone far upon his way, in the depths of positive sin. 
My brethren, if your plan is thus to live upon the 
borders of religious character, you will be open to 
the aggressions of foes, whose assaults cannot, upon 
your own principles, be resisted. "While you are thus 
frequently standing upon, or crossing over the line 
which separates you from known transgression, you 
will be taken captive, and led off in the chains of 
bondage, when you least suspect it. See, I beseech 



SER. XIII.] LITTLE SINS. 205 

you, whether you will not find many Zoars of this 
kind in your experience. See, if there be not, in 
your personal habits, or your family habits, such a 
planning for indulgences ; such a disposition to make 
important points, of preparation for food or raiment ; 
such a calculation to eat, and drink, and live ; as if 
the glory of God were in no way concerned in what 
you do. O, will you not find much here that will 
appear the openings of serious evil ? Much that may 
account for the dominion of a worldly spirit and cal- 
culation? We may err when we fasten too much 
importance upon little matters, in forming our opinions 
of others ; but we are not likely to be too sensitive, 
or too minute, in judging of ourselves. Be content, 
my friends, to follow Jesus in his own way, mortify- 
ing the whole body of sin, and making no provision 
for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. For all these 
tilings, God will bring us into judgment. And it is 
well for us, in every view of character and responsi- 
bility, to use the world as not abusing it ; to refuse 
the temptations, and to avoid the chains of a worldly, 
self-indulgent temper. Let us esteem no questionable 
pampering of ourselves, as " a little one," in which 
our " souls may live." 

3. This inattention to smaller things will be de- 
tected in the light and unimproving recreations and 
amusements, which are often allowed. I do not speak 
here of the bold licentiousness of theatrical exhibi- 
tions ; I cannot descend so low. The professing 
Christian who gives a personal countenance to this 
system of contempt for God, and of destruction for 
man, has already sunk too far, to be reached by the 
language of my present admonition. The assump- 
S 



206 LITTLE SINS. [SEE. XIII. 

tion of the name of Christ in such a connexion, is 
only a remarkable instance, of the power which the 
human heart has to delude itself, or of the audacity 
with which man attempts to impose upon others. 
Passing over all these glaring and public scenes of 
dishonour to God, I refer now, to amusements which 
come in a more questionable shape, in the recreations 
of private society. There is a giddiness and levity in 
conversation; a trifling, gossiping, thoughtless spirit; 
an utter rejection of all seriousness in habit and cha- 
racter; which, without the card-table, or the mazy 
dance, or the race-course, or the demoralizing public 
spectacle, may degenerate into a confirmed and un- 
conquerable habit of worldliness, while the victim of 
the process, hardly recalls a single instance in which 
the actual limits of propriety in his own view, were 
overstepped. The parent legalizes all this system of 
actual unhinging of mind and principle, this railroad 
plan of destruction for the soul, not, it will be alleged, 
for the gratification of personal desire, but to intro- 
duce a child to scenes, which on the parent's part, it 
is avowed, have been long outgrown and renounced. 
That provision for levity of character, and levity of 
feeling, is esteemed proper, perhaps necessary, for 
the young, which, it is still hoped, they will live 
long enough to be sorry for, and to forsake. O, 
how shocking to every fine and holy feeling in the 
Christian heart, is a plan like this ! Let me say to 
young professors of the Gospel, that these innocent 
scenes, as the apologists for this world style them, 
are the very fields in which the fowler spreads his 
snares with the most success. Of many a one, who 
by a life of habitual, guarded separation from this 



SER. XIII.] LITTLE SINS. 201 

light and scattering society, would have been secure, 
may the Lord now say, " Demas hath forsaken me, 
having loved this present world;" and that too, even 
before that fallen professor imagines, that there is a 
danger of such defection from Christ. Is this a pic- 
ture of any who hear me? Then mark the com- 
mencement and the process of your ruin. Do not 
say, " is thy servant a dog, that he should do such 
things?" Your condition is most alarming. May 
God give you grace to perceive it in time. Vain will 
be your escape from Sodom, if you cling to the fancied 
protection of Zoar. While the world says to you, 
in so many preparations for giddy enjoyment, " come 
and see ;" I beseech you stop, and reflect most deli- 
berately, what sacrifice may be required of you for 
one trifling, thoughtless, self-indulgent hour, spent 
among the enemies of God, in a conspired forgetful- 
ness of him ! 

4. You may discover this inattention to smaller 
matters in religion, in an increasing spirit of idleness 
and sloth. God has formed no human being to be 
useless, or idle. He has assigned to man, his proper 
duty in every station, that he may go forth unto his 
work, and to his labour, until the evening. And 
though there are many who have been raised by his 
divine providence, above the necessity of labouring 
for actual subsistence ; there is not one, who will not 
be called upon for an account to God, for the employ- 
ment of every hour of his life. If the precious and 
important time of the soul's probation, be consumed 
in unreasonable sleep and sloth, and the claims of 
duty to others and of improvement for ourselves, be 
disregarded in the listless indolence of a self-indulgent 



208 LITTLE SINS. [SER. XIII. 

spirit, shall not he find it out ? And did he form this 
curious tabernacle for the soul, so marvellously ar- 
ranged with all its powers of action, merely to be fed 
a while, and then to die ? Did he constitute the mind, 
with its mysterious and multiplied faculties, to be 
vacant and neglected, and then to pass into another, 
and an unchanging world, for its reward ? The hu- 
man character is far too active, and far too propense 
to sin, to be trusted uncontrolled, and unwatched, to 
the tendency and result of its own operations. The 
necessity for continual active employment, in the 
station of man, is a blessing, not an evil. And it is 
undoubtedly, not one of the least reasons of the re- 
markable preponderance of religious character, as it 
is beheld among men, always noticed among that class 
of persons whose circumstances compel them to be 
industrious, that they have not the time or means to 
waste themselves with indulgence, or to melt away in 
sloth. This indolent spirit is always ready to open 
the door of the heart to every intruder, from its empty 
desire for company. The instances have not been 
few, in which the man was an useful and active ser- 
vant of the Lord, while narrow circumstances obliged 
him to labour, and became bent to backsliding from 
God, and useless in the cause of Christ to men, when 
in the change of his outward condition, by the accu- 
mulation of wealth, the necessity for personal exer- 
tion and actual labour had passed away. My brethren, 
how is this case with you ? Does time ever appear 
long and heavy? Is there any hour which has no 
employment ? Is it becoming difficult to you to be 
actively engaged? Is it an effort to keep yourself 
employed ? O, then, do not persuade yourself to call 



SEE,. XIII.] LITTLE SINS. 209 

this thing " a little one I" It will lead to great and 
dangerous results. It will stifle and destroy all your 
efforts to do the will of God. The life of religion 
will become by its indulgence, dormant in your heart. 
The duties of religion will be a yoke which you can- 
not bear. The victory of sin over your soul will be 
the more permanent for having been thus slowly ob- 
tained. The Zoar of indolence will be no refuge. 
It may be made the prison of bondage. It can never 
be the abode of peace. 

These are some very manifest instances, which 
show that inattention to the guilt and danger of little 
things in the formation of religious character, in 
which so many vainly try to shelter themselves, and 
in which so many are destroyed. Their result will 
be uniformly the same. It will always be an entire 
and open desertion of the ways of religion and peace, 
unless some merciful hand shall pluck the lingering 
sinner from this destructive refuge, and place him 
upon some safer ground. It is always in the abuse 
of the things which are really lawful, that we begin to 
perish. The man who pleads for a doubtful or sus- 
pected indulgence, and says upon the approach of the 
temptation, "Is it not a little one ? and my soul shall 
live," is in this concession, already beginning to yield 
himself in captivity to the enemy of his soul. In the 
things which are considered trifling matters, is our 
chief reason for fear. Great transgressions come to 
the heart unaccustomed to them, with no attraction. 
Man's first downward step towards them, is far off 
from them. But in religious character there is nothing 
unimportant. The smallest inlets for sin must be 
closed. He who hopes to be kept back from the do- 
s 2 27 



210 LITTLE SINS. [SER. XIII. 

minion of presumptuous sins, must seek and resolve 
to be cleansed from his secret faults. We are required 
to abstain from all appearance of evil ; and to give 
all diligence to our growth in grace, that our calling 
and election may be made sure. Let him that thinketh 
he standeth, take heed lest he fall. 

If you find in yourselves this heedless and secure 
habit which casts out fear; if you find that your 
watchfulness is directed to things which are seen and 
known by others, and that it is relaxed in those things 
which are considered of less moment and influence ; 
you may be assured that your condition is one of ex- 
ceeding danger, and that the natural result of such a 
state of mind, is a permanent and final backsliding 
from God. The spirit of rebellion against him, is 
easily excited. Temptations to it enter at the smallest 
breach ; and if they enter with your consent, you will 
be exceedingly in danger of finding at the last, that 
this spirit has dominion over you. Inconstancy and 
instability will mark all your conduct, and become 
settled principles in your character, even if you retain 
your profession of being the servants of the Lord. 
And you will find yourselves deserted by him; his 
Spirit departing from you ; and yourselves left finally 
to perish, as the result of your own folly and sin. 

What then, my brethren, ought to be the conclu- 
sion of such a subject, but an earnest exhortation 
to you to live near to God, in the light and power 
of his Holy Spirit ; and to strive to walk circum- 
spectly and faithfully in the path of his command- 
ments ? O, make it your object to be as nearly as 
possible, holy as God is holy. Seek the deeper work 
of his Spirit in your hearts, that you may become 



SER. XIII.] LITTLE SINS. 211 

under his dominion, in all things conformed to the 
perfect image of Jesus Christ. How much easier it 
is to please hut a single master ; to follow out a single 
line of personal duty ; to sit down in the calmness of 
an uniform affection, at the feet of Jesus ; than it is to 
work out that difficult, dangerous problem, how near 
you may live to the world, and how much you may 
have of the spirit of the world, and yet not become 
final castaways from God ! If you really desire and 
determine to be perfect in all the will of God, the 
Spirit of God will hold you up in your determination, 
and enable you to accomplish it. If you seek to 
grow up in the perfect likeness of Christ, you will 
find yourselves upheld and guided by a secret power, 
which shall give you the image you desire. O, make 
this then, your purpose. See, how circumspect, how 
holy, how pure, how thoroughly conformed to the 
character of Jesus, you can become, by prayer for 
his Spirit, by recollection of his commands, by medi- 
tation upon his example, by study of his word, by 
communion with his people. Avoid all these " little 
ones," that stand between Sodom and safety; and fly 
to the mountain, that glorious mountain of salvation 
in Christ, which is exalted above all the mountains. 
Walk thus in him, with him, under him, by his power; 
that when he shall come to ask an account of your 
stewardship, you may give it with joy ; and be made 
partakers with him of that inheritance which he hath 
purchased, and for which you will have thus become 
prepared. 



SERMON XIV. 



THE VALLEY OF DECISION. 



Joel iii. 14. — Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision; for the 
day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. 

A sense of ultimate personal responsibility is in- 
separable from the mind of man. There is a conscious- 
ness within him, which announces the existence of a 
God who judgeth in the earth, and warns him that 
the great object of his life must be, to prepare to meet 
him in a final account. The holy Scriptures unite in 
the same solemn testimony, enlarge and confirm it 
with most awakening and important descriptions, and 
call upon men to be ready for the day of God's coming 
to judge the earth. 

In the passage which I have selected for my pre- 
sent text, there is a striking exhibition of this final 
judgment of man, the great day of his account with 
God. The Lord calls upon the heathen to assemble 
themselves together before him, and for his mighty 
ones to come down in attendance upon him. " Let 
the heathen be wakened and come up to the valley of 
Jehoshaphat, for there will I sit to judge all the 

212 



SER. XIV.] THE VALLEY OF DECISION. 213 

heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the 
harvest is ripe ; come, get you down ; for the press is 
full, the fats overflow ; for their wickedness is great. 
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision." 
The harvest for man is the close of his probation for 
eternity. And when this harvest is ripe, either for 
glory, or for ruin, God puts in his sickle, and by his 
angels, reaps both wheat and tares, for their final des- 
tination. " The valley of Jehoshaphat," in which 
this vast congregation of accountable beings is sup- 
posed to be collected, means, " the valley of the judg- 
ment of the Lord." Here in the valley of his judg- 
ment, in the time and manner of his own appoint- 
ment, will the Lord collect the beings whom he hath 
formed, and proclaim to all, the final condition and 
character of each. All nations shall be gathered be- 
fore him. The heavens and the earth shall be moved 
at his presence. But the Lord will be the hope and 
strength of his people. 

In its practical application to man, however, the 
day of final judgment makes no change in his real 
character. It simply proclaims that which was be- 
fore the fact. It announces the issue of human con- 
duct. It declares the sentence which has been long 
determined. It delivers over every accountable being 
finally to his own place. Man's real time of proba- 
tion is in the present life. Here, is the valley of de- 
cision, and the only valley of decision for eternity. 
As the tree falleth, so must it lie. No man's ever- 
lasting condition will be rendered more sure in the 
day of judgment than it is in the hour of death. 
Whether he leaves the present world as a child, or 
as an enemy to God, as such he remains forever. He 



214 THE VALLEY OF DECISION. [SER. XIV. 

that is then holy, is holy still, and he that is then un- 
just, is eternally unjust still. 

I would call your attention to a view of this valley 
of decision, in the humble hope, that God may he 
pleased to make our consideration of this subject, a 
means of profit to us all, and of preparation for its 
issue. In remarking upon the subject, I would first 
consider, 

I. What may be understood as the valley of deci- 
sion for man. The question is answered generally, 
that the whole life of man upon the earth is given to 
him as his time of education for an eternal state of 
being ; and every question which is connected with 
his eternity, is to be decided by him here upon the 
earth. While this day of privileges lasts, man must 
accomplish the whole work of safety for his soul, 
when the night cometh at its close, no man can work. 
Within its limits every thing must be done, which is 
necessary to be done, that he may appear before God 
in peace. 

But while we speak of questions to be decided 
here, there is actually but a single question proposed 
from God to man. As a wandering, rebellious crea- 
ture, he is invited and commanded, to come back in 
the spirit and act of reconciliation unto God. He is 
called upon to submit himself to the will of his 
Creator, and to find all his comfort and enjoyment in 
his favour. In the full provisions of the Gospel, the 
means of entire and eternal union with God, are of- 
fered to his acceptance and the only question for him 
to decide, is, whether he will accept them. Will he 
lay hold of the hope which is set before him, and with 
a new heart, and a right spirit, glorify him who hath 



SER. XIV.] THE VALLEY OF DECISION. 215 

bought him with a price ? This is the question pro- 
posed to man, in all the messages of the Gospel, and 
urged upon his consideration, by all the acts of divine 
Providence in his behalf, and all the operations of the 
Spirit of God upon his mind and heart. This prac- 
tical question he cannot leave undecided. It meets 
him face to face, day by day ; and it must be met by 
him, and settled by him for himself, and that for 
eternity. 

This is the great question of human life, and it is 
generally determined by man, long before the last 
hours of his life have come. Many who are yet 
living on the earth, have settled this question finally 
for themselves, and have, therefore, actually passed 
out of the valley of decision, though they have not 
passed out of the present state of being. Some have 
come upon the Lord's side ; have thankfully accepted 
the privileges of the Gospel ; have become converted 
in their hearts unto God ; and they are the Lord's 
forever. They are no longer hesitating whom they 
shall serve. Their hearts have been fixed, in the de- 
termination to serve the Lord. They have chosen 
that good part which shall never be taken away from 
them. For them every thing is decided for eternity. 
He who hath plucked their feet out of the net, will 
keep their feet from falling, and their eyes from tears, 
and they shall walk before him in the land of the 
living. He will guide them by his counsel and re- 
ceive them to his glory. The final day of the Lord 
for them, will not alter, but announce their character. 
It will give them the crown of righteousness which 
fadeth not away, which the Lord, the righteous Judge 
hath reserved for all who love his appearing. And 



£16 THE VALLEY OF DECISION. [SER. XIV. 

happy in that day will be found the people whose God 
is the Lord. 

Others yet upon the earth have also decided this 
great question, but in another way. They have 
chosen death rather than life. They have finally re- 
fused the invitations of the Lord. They have turned 
their hearts away from him ; rejected all his mercies ; 
and driven from them the renewing influences of his 
Holy Spirit. From them too, the Saviour has de- 
parted, and withdrawn from them the quickening 
power of his grace. They are left alone. The pro- 
vidences of God do not affect them. The ministers 
and messages of God do not influence them. They 
are barren and unfruitful in every thing which God 
can look upon with favour and acceptance. Jesus 
has called, and they have refused ; he has stretched 
out his hands, and they have not regarded it. They 
have distinctly declared that they will not come unto 
him for life. Some have decided this great question 
proposed to their souls, in entire infidelity. They 
have denied even the authority by which they are 
called back to exercise repentance towards God. 
Some have sunk down into confirmed worldliness of 
character, and have thrown away all sensibility to 
unseen and eternal things. Some have immersed 
themselves in unfeeling vice, and have broken and 
cast away all the cords of grace and purity. Some 
in mere thoughtless giddiness, mock at all the solemn 
messages of the Most High. Now all these have, in 
reality, passed out of the valley of decision. There 
is no question before them to be settled. Their 
eternity has been fixed, and fixed by their own choice 
and determination. Death will make no change with 



SER. XIV.] THE VALLEY OF DECISION. 217 

them for the better. The day of the Lord will only 
declare that which they have previously determined 
for themselves. Their harvest then will be from their 
own seed. They have sown to the flesh, and from 
the flesh they shall reap corruption. 

We cannot, therefore, justly say, that all men now 
alive, are in the valley of decision. We must narrow 
down our view of it, to that condition in the history 
of man, in which the great question for heaven or 
hell remains yet to be decided ; in which men have 
not finally come upon the Lord's side, nor yet finally 
rejected him. The mind is then called to the con- 
sideration of the great demand, shall I prefer the re- 
proach and promises of Christ, or the treasures of the 
world, and the pleasures of sin ? Each time a mes- 
sage of the Gospel is heard,,this question is distinctly 
proposed again, and again answered by man. We 
may not say of individual cases, that men are not still 
within reach of a Saviour's mercy. It is always true 
that whosoever cometh to him shall in no wise be cast 
out. But we know that they are within the limits of 
his offers, by whom this great subject is still consider- 
ed, who are reflecting upon the wants and the pros- 
pects of their souls, halting upon the edge of a jour- 
ney which they are required to undertake, and still 
undetermined between the diverting motives which 
are presented to them, in what direction they shall 
finally go. For them, conscience is awakened, fear 
is excited, consideration is exercised. But no action 
has yet taken place. They are still waiting upon the 
edge of the pool, but still only upon its edge. The 
question before them in the circumstances which at- 
tend it, is momentous. All others are nothing in 
T 28 



218 THE VALLEY OF DECISION. [SER. XIV. 

comparison with it. Every thing really important 
for time and for eternity is involved in the decision 
of it. This time and state of character are peculiar. 
And these may be considered by us, as the real valley 
of decision for man. 

II. I would remark, secondly, that the greater por- 
tion of those to whom the offers of eternal life are 
here made, are in this condition : " Multitudes, multi- 
tudes in the valley of decision." The grand question 
which man must decide, is proposed to all to whom 
the invitations of the Gospel come. The way of re- 
turn to God is opened to all, and all are urged to 
press into it, and gain the blessing. 

But, very few comparatively, have determined the 
question for their souls upon the Lord's side. The 
proportion of truly spiritual, separated, holy Chris- 
tians in any community, is small indeed. Here and 
there, like a berry upon the topmost bough, we find a 
single soul, who has, and who gives, evidence of that 
radical, entire change of heart which constitutes a true 
follower of the Lord Jesus, among many who have 
no such precious faith. But few, we would hope, 
have finally determined this great question against 
themselves, and said to Satan and the world, " with 
you will we go." Whether any such now listen to 
me, I know not. I would fain hope that none of you, 
my friends, have said to the Redeemer of fallen man, 
" depart from us, for we desire not a knowledge of thy 
ways." 

The residue, probably the great majority of those 
who listen to the Gospel* are still in this valley of de- 
cision. A blessing and a curse are yet before them. 
Opposing offers and invitations are still presented to 



SER. XIV.] THE VALLEY OF DECISION. 219 

them. None are without some convictions of their 
wants. There are few who do not make resolutions 
of personal amendment ; few who do not often desire 
a better portion than this world can give them. My 
friends, the great concerns of a world to come, are 
spread before you, and it is for you now to determine, 
whether you shall be saved or lost forever. Now is 
your accepted time, your appointed opportunity for 
this determination. You would be unwilling, pro- 
bably, to enter into a covenant with your real adver- 
sary, that you will never lay yourselves down as a 
sacrifice to him who has loved you, and purchased 
you with his death. And yet you are unwilling, also, 
to take upon you the yoke of Christ, to follow him. 
You are thus still halting, unstable, between two 
opinions. The Saviour waits to be gracious unto 
you ; and Satan waits to destroy. But this condition 
cannot be permanent ; this state of mind cannot 
abide. You must come to a final choice in this great 
controversy around you. And however long you 
may try to put the decision from you, and however 
earnestly you may shrink from, and endeavour to 
escape this final decision, it cannot be long postponed. 
Some of my undecided hearers are, undoubtedly, 
much nearer this determination than others. Some 
are inquiring the way of life, and asking for the gift 
of the Holy Ghost, while many have not so much as 
thought whether there be any Holy Ghost. Peculiar 
circumstances will often bring larger numbers together 
than usual, into this condition. Their minds are 
aroused and made to think, and their consciences are 
compelled to feel, and to acknowledge their feeling, 
upon this all-important subject. They become con- 



220 THE VALLEY OF 'DECISION. [SER. XIV. 

vinced of their wants, and almost persuaded to accept 
the proffered remedy. Their position is then, in the 
highest degree affecting, solemn, and critical. Jesus 
pleads with them, his wounds and death. He offers 
them full, instant, everlasting salvation. The Holy- 
Spirit urges them to accept it, and strives with 
them to lead them to a decision for Christ. Their 
means and opportunities of mercy are numerous. But 
they are transitory. All heaven seems to be waiting 
the event. All hell seems to be looking on too, for 
the issue. Shall they cast away the works of dark- 
ness, and in the real conversion of their hearts to 
God, go with Jesus, and become his forever ? or shall 
they refuse his voice, and join themselves finally with 
those who hate him ? Their minds dwell upon this 
question, and consider it again and again. It must be 
decided ; and it must be decided by themselves. God 
has not decided it for them in any manner by which the 
choice is not left to them, though he knoweth the way 
that they take. The mercies and privileges of the 
Gospel are freely offered to them, and if they will, 
they may embrace them, and rejoice in them forever. 
If they do not enjoy them, it is because they reject 
them ; and where then is the just condemnation, but 
on their own chosen guilt ? What ruin awaits them, 
but that which they voluntarily pluck down upon 
themselves ? 

The Holy Spirit is thus rapidly leading you on to a 
point where this issue must come. He will not always 
strive with you. He will then either have sealed you 
unto the day of redemption, or have withdrawn his 
power from you forever. What condition can be 
more important than that in which you stand who are 



SER. XIV.] THE VALLEY OF DECISION. 221 

now pressing forward to an eternal world, and are 
still undecided amidst all your privileges, what you 
shall select as your portion and your inheritance 
there? Yet such is the probable condition of the 
most who listen to me. O, that you may know, at 
least, in this your day, the things which belong unto 
your peace, for soon they will be hidden from your eyes. 

III. The text admonishes you, that this decision 
must be speedily made. " The day of the Lord is 
near in the valley of decision." 

"The day of the Lord" is the hour of final deter- 
mination of the destiny of the children of mem It 
is the day when his purposes are completed ; when 
the actual trial for man is closed ; and when the cha- 
racter and condition of each one are finally settled as 
they are to remain forever. According to the charac- 
ter of man, it is an hour of joy, or of deep and dread- 
ful mourning It is the day on which he makes a final 
separation between him that serveth God, and him that 
serveth him not ; the day in which he makes up his 
jewels, gathers his wheat into his garner, separates 
the precious from the vile, binds the tares in bundles 
for the fire, and delivers over the ungodly unto eternal 
perdition. 

Soon for every man, this day must certainly come 
at the period of death. The hours of considera- 
tion will thus be finished, and the actual enjoyment 
of the glories of heaven, or the actual endurance of 
the pains of hell, will close all opportunities to make 
that great selection, for which life was prolonged 
amidst the privileges of the Gospel. But when men 
are awakened to consider their spiritual interests, to 
see and feel the necessity of some salvation, their day 
t 2 



222 THE VALLEY OF DECISION. [SER. XIV. 

of decision is probably, much nearer, than the day of 
their death. An anxious and inquiring mind cannot 
long remain undecided, in regard to the course to be 
pursued. While men are unmoved and careless, they 
may suppose themselves to be postponing the deter- 
mination which they are required to make. But when 
their attention is arrested, and their thoughtfulness is 
excited, by the infinitely important concerns of the 
soul, the mind of man is brought to a point, and can- 
not remain hesitating long. While the wax is melted 
the impression must be made. And in the case of 
the awakened sinner, whatever the choice may be, it 
is generally a final one. He is made now to see the 
facts in his case as they are, and while he thus sees 
them, it is impossible to postpone his decision con- 
cerning them. It is his privilege and his duty, imme- 
diately to embrace a Saviour, and to rejoice in him. 
The Lord Jesus is willing, and waiting to receive him; 
and he is invited to come unto him, ignorant and 
perishing as he is, to obtain the mercy and the help 
he needs. His first, instant duty is, to accept the 
promises of the Gospel. And whenever he shall 
yield his will to Christ, and submit himself wholly to 
the Saviour's will and power, he is safe. But this 
state of mere conviction, while he refuses to seek for 
pardon in a Saviour's merits, is a state of continually 
increasing guilt. If he continue to refuse an accept- 
ance of the Gospel, and a submission of himself to 
God, he remains more certainly a rebel than he was 
before. He now goes on in his guilt, with his eyes 
fully opened to his danger. And every hour in- 
creases the hopelessness of his condition, and his 
despair of ever attaining the life he needs. 



SER. XIV.] THE VALLEY OF DECISION. 223 

My friends, you cannot remain long in a state like 
this. You must decide, and you will decide, in some 
way, for the character and prospects of your souls. 
The day of the Lord is near. It cannot be postponed. 
This is, in a peculiar sense, your accepted time, and 
this is your day of salvation. The night is before you, 
when nothing can be done, and nothing can be gained for 
your souls. Some of you will resist the Holy Ghost, 
until he will depart from you. You will be left in a 
hardened, careless state of mind. Your consciences 
will relapse into unconcern ; you will sink into forget- 
fulness and aversion from God ; and go down from 
depth to depth, to final loss and ruin. It will have 
been better for you, if you had never been awakened, 
if you had never thought of your souls, if you had 
continued from the beginning, and perished in an 
originally careless, hardened state. Now you have 
chosen, in the face of every motive, and duty, and pri- 
vilege, the inheritance of sorrow which is laid up for 
unbelieving men. O, how painful is the thought, that 
this will soon, perhaps, be the case of some who now 
hear me ! They will go on rejecting the goodness of 
God against themselves, until no place will be found 
for repentance, and no room will be left for hope. It 
is rare indeed, after a man has been once solemnly 
aroused to think of the things which belong to his 
peace, if he reject the offers of the Gospel, that he 
feels any willingness to have his attention again called 
to them. He passes out of the valley of decision, and 
the Lord departs from him. God waits among you 
to be gracious, but he will not be mocked. How im- 
portant then becomes your present condition ! While 
you are candidates for eternity, encompassed with pri- 



224f THE VALLEY OF DECISION. [SER. XIV. 

vileges, how serious and influential, may be the next 
step you will take in the great concerns of your souls ! 
Who shall estimate its consequences for you ? Who 
shall retrieve its possible errors ? 

For others, the day of the Lord is near, as the 
commencement of everlasting liberty and hope. They 
will be led to build themselves on the Lord Jesus 
Christ. They will lay themselves down on his merits, 
as their chosen foundation. They will be safe in him 
forever. They will pass from a conviction that they 
are lost and need a restoration, to a godly sorrow for 
sin, to a full submission to God, to an entire renova- 
tion of heart ; and in this change of heart and cha- 
racter, they will have that repentance unto salvation, 
which is not to be repented of. They will be wel- 
comed to the favour of God, and into his abode of 
everlasting peace, and made the objects of his peculiar 
and unchanging love. How happy will be their con- 
dition ! How precious their privilege ! How joyful 
for them, is the fact, that the day of the Lord is near! 

My friends, many of you are this day in this nar- 
row valley of decision. It will soon be passed by 
you. But whither will you pass from it ? Will you 
return to impenitent sin, and unchangeable ruin ? Or 
will you ascend from it with Christ, to glory and to 
God? This is the question, for which I press your 
determination. In the presence of an heart-search- 
ing God, it must be decided by yourselves. What 
multiplied and powerful motives combine to urge you 
to make your calling and election sure ! To-day, 
while it is called to-day, harden not your hearts, as 
in past days of provocation ; but hear the voice, em- 
brace the promises, and obey the commands of God 
your Saviour. 



SERMON XV. 



THE CHRISTIAN'S HINDRANCES. 



Genesis xxiv. 56. — And he said unto them, Hinder me not, seeing the 
Lord hath prospered my way. 

The energy and self-devotion with which men 
pursue the business of the present world, furnish us 
with many illustrations of that total surrender of our- 
selves to the service of Almighty God, which he re- 
quires of us all. We daily behold instances of men, 
who in their ardent desire for some distinct, and in 
their estimation, valuable object of pursuit, are will- 
ing to banish all other purposes from their minds, and 
appear to consider the whole value of life, as consist- 
ing in the opportunity, which it presents for this single 
selected pursuit. The man of industry, the child of 
pleasure, the victim of sensuality, the aspirant for the 
honours of the world, are accustomed to set up their 
individual plans as the sun in their firmament, and to 
consider the time occupied in them, as the main en- 
gagement of their life. They have made an un- 
equivocal surrender of themselves to a peculiar end. 
And whatever attempts to interfere with their attain- 

29 225 



226 the christian's hindrances. [SER. XV. 

ment of this end, they arrest and repel with the ex- 
clamation of the servant of Abraham, "hinder me 
not." 

From an observation of this singleness of purpose 
among men, directed to the acquisition of supposed 
advantages in the present world, our Lord derives 
one of the serious admonitions which he gives to his 
disciples ; " the children of this world are wiser in 
their generation than the children of light." If there 
were no room for this comparative reproof, who can 
calculate the beneficial results which would flow for 
the church of Christ? If the same monopolizing 
spirit which is seen to mark the affairs and course of 
those who have laid up their treasure on the earth, 
should constrain and govern all the members of Christ, 
elevated above all worldly engagements, and directed 
to the salvation of souls, and to the imperishable glo- 
ries of an eternal state of being ; how soon would the 
church of the Lord Jesus arise and shine, and the 
glory of the Lord be seen rising upon her. 

Let us announce some brilliant scheme of gain, let 
us scatter the invitations of gayety and mirth, let us ex- 
hibit the little elevations which are bestowed by popular 
breath, and how eager and pressing are the hearts of 
men for their attainment ! Nothing else appears in 
their view to be of comparative importance. " Give 
me this, or I die," they are ready to exclaim. But 
when we would lead the affections of men to glory 
and to God, then a lion is in the way ; something else 
must be first attended to ; a more convenient season 
will certainly arrive ; at any rate, they desire to be 
excused. In this course of effort, a thousand hind- 
rances interfere, and very few are found willing to con- 



ser. xv.] the christian's hindrances. 221 

tend with them all, and to hate and renounce all other 
things for the sake of Christ. This cross to be im- 
mediately borne, is frequently an insuperable obstacle ; 
and the prospect of self-denial is almost as repulsive 
as the fear of death. Many who hear, and apparently 
desire to embrace, the invitations of the Gospel, thus 
go away from Christ, and walk no more with him. 
They cannot endure the difficulties which they meet, 
and the words which they hear. Instead of girding 
themselves for a race, with a fixed determination so 
to run that they may obtain, they give up their first 
desires for salvation, and lie down in despondency, if 
not with contentment, amidst the snares and dangers 
of a state of unpardoned sin. 

There are, doubtless, many hindrances, and great 
hindrances, arising from a variety of sources, both 
from our own hearts, and from the course of the world 
around us, in every stage of our Christian course. 
Some of these I purpose to consider. Whatever they 
may be, the reason which the servant of Abraham 
gives in our text, for his haste in the performance of 
duty, and which I design to accommodate to our pre- 
sent purpose, may be used as an answer to all at- 
tempts to lead us away from God. " Hinder me not, 
seeing the Lord hath prospered my way." The Lord 
hath prospered our way. He has provided means for 
our return to him. He has awakened us from entire 
carelessness. He has bestowed upon us thus far, all 
the comfort and peace which we have received, and 
enabled us to do all that we have done for him. These 
past manifestations of his goodness to our souls, en- 
courage us to strive for greater attainments, and excite 
us to press forward to a full experience of his renew- 



228 the christian's HINDRANCES. [SER. XV, 

ing and saving power. Our past prosperity is an un- 
ceasing encouragement to future effort, and may be 
employed as an answer to every hindrance. Under 
this view would I adopt the expression of our text. 

I. It is the entreaty of an awakened sinner return- 
ing to the Lord, " Hinder me not, seeing the Lord 
hath prospered my way." An open door is set before 
him. A new and living way of salvation invites him. 
But there are many adversaries. Just awakened to 
know and feel his own unworthiness and danger, his 
heart is tender and fearful. He would gladly in- 
dulge the hope of safety, but a thousand apprehen- 
sions break in upon his peace, and fill him with mourn- 
ing and bitterness. When he looks upon the misery 
to which he has been reduced by sin, he gladly re- 
solves, "I will arise and go to my Father, and will 
say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven 
and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called 
thy son." But when he remembers the rebellious 
discontent which first led him from his Father's house, 
the ungrateful and proud spirit with which he has 
wandered through the world, and the hateful appear- 
ance of his whole character in his Father's eye, he is 
almost ready to despair of acceptance with him, and 
to resolve never to attempt a return which seems so 
little likely to be successful. 

In this state of hesitation and difficulty for the con- 
victed sinner, a thousand hindrances are suggested to 
his mind. His sins are too many and too great to be 
forgiven. His name is not in the book of life. God 
will not accept his return. He has no true penitence 
for sin. He but deceives himself in the idea, that he 
is sorry for his transgressions. His tears are selfish 



SER. XV.] THE CHRISTIAN'S HINDRANCES: 229 

and vain. His awakened feelings are but a delusion. 
He can never hope to be better. He can never over- 
come the evil habits of his life, or the sinful disposi- 
tions of his heart. He will be, and must be ruined, 
and it is wiser for him to sit down, and try to make 
himself contented with the prospect. So much dis- 
quietude and concern are altogether unnecessary. 
His life has never been especially immoral. There 
are many others far more depraved than he. There 
is, therefore, no peculiar reason in his case, for so 
great excitement upon the subject. These, and many 
like them, are in different cases, specimens of the 
method in which the tempter argues. The answer 
of the awakened soul may be the same to all, 
"hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered 
my way." "Salvation is freely offered, and I will em- 
brace it. There is a wrath to come, and I will hasten 
my escape from the windy storm and tempest. Jesus 
the Saviour, declares himself ready to receive me, and 
nothing shall separate me from his love. My mind 
has been graciously awakened by him, to seek for the 
things which belong unto my peace, and I will not 
suffer it to sink again into lethargy and spiritual death. 
I have had a full experience of the condition of an 
unpardoned sinner. I will not again willingly yield 
myself to its bondage. O, that I had the wings of a 
dove, then would I flee away and be at rest." 

The worldly and careless around him scoff at his 
fears, and deride his apprehensions. They feel not 
the burden of guilt. They know not the terrors of 
an awakened conscience, and they can mock when 
fear cometh. They say he is insane, or foolishly and 
unnecessarily excited. There is no reason in his 
U 



230 the christian's hindrances. [SER. XV. 

views of his own condition. It is enthusiasm and 
cowardice. They would lead him back again to the 
exhilarating amusements of life. They would persuade 
him to brush off in the recreations of society, the 
gloom which hangs upon his spirits. They would 
urge him to be himself again, and not to yield to 
these unmanly terrors and apprehensions. "Hinder 
me not," the persecuted penitent replies. "I have seen 
enough of worldly cheerfulness and mirth. I have 
seen that the end of that laughter is bitterness. The 
sorrows of a sinner's death-bed I will not try. The 
portion of the worldly shall not be mine. The just 
indignation of a holy God I will not provoke. He 
offers me forgiveness, and I will embrace it. He 
promises life, and I will not refuse it. He has pros- 
pered my way and drawn my heart to him, and I will 
run after him. I will seek a treasure in heaven, and 
where my treasure is, there shall my heart be also." 

Many such hindrances the awakened sinner meets, 
before he can shake off the arts of Satan, or the 
scons of the worldly. The accumulation of his diffi- 
culties will sometimes almost drive him to despair. 
But it is a race in which he cannot rest. He has set 
up his standard towards Sion, and he must press on 
in the warfare, till he gain the victory. He knows 
that there is a fountain opened for sin and for unclean- 
ness, and he will not rest until he has there washed 
his sins away. This is the seed-time for his soul; 
and a season so valuable, so full of hope and advan- 
tage, shall not be allowed to pass without an adequate 
improvement. His mind was never before so excited 
by the revelations of an eternal world. The hopes 
of the Gospel never before seemed to be the things 



SER. XV.] THE CHRISTIAN'S HINDRANCES. 231 

which belonged to his peace. A Saviour's invitations 
never exhibited the worth which they now display. 
He cannot doubt that these new feelings are evidences 
that the Lord hath prospered, and will prosper his 
way. If he now seek him with sincerity, he shall 
find him. Should he now forsake him, he may well 
fear that he will cast him off forever. 

If any of my hearers are thus described, I pray 
them to make a personal application of this important 
subject. Let nothing hinder you from finally obey- 
ing the truth. Cherish, cultivate, pray over the feel- 
ings of contrition which God has excited in your 
hearts. Vain and foolish men may scoff at your 
plans. But a future day will proclaim the wisdom of 
your choice, and the ruinous folly of theirs. The 
Lord has set before you a blessing which it is beyond 
the power of man to remove. If you deliberately 
and solemnly resolve upon your faithful return to him, 
he will hold you, and sustain you, and make you a 
conqueror, through him that hath loved you, and given 
himself for you. Press forward then, in a simple 
desire and determination to gain a final and everlast- 
ing interest in the Lord Jesus, and you shall not be 
disappointed in your hope, nor come short of the end 
you seek. 

II. The words of our text may be the prayer of 
the new convert to Christ — the Christian who has 
just experienced the new creating grace of God; 
" hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my 
way." Interesting beyond the power of description, 
is the state of that person who is called in the Scrip- 
tures, " a babe in Christ;" who has just been brought 
from darkness into light, and for the first time in his 



232 the christian's HINDRANCES. [SER. XV. 

life, has tasted the powers of the world to come. If 
we can imagine the emotions which swelled the heart 
of the first man, when in the full power of intelli- 
gence, and with quick and strong perceptions, he 
opened his eyes upon the fair scene in which he had 
been placed, and saw every object around him, ripe 
with beauty, and glowing with a thousand attractions ; 
we may have an interesting illustration of the new 
scenes, and unknown aspects of spiritual gifts and 
treasures, which press before the mind of one who 
has just tasted that the Lord is gracious. The Scrip- 
tures are found to have contents which he never saw 
before. The character of God appears to him full of 
glory, and shining in love. The great salvation which 
he has offered, seems worthy of all acceptation. Jesus 
appears infinitely precious and desirable. And he 
wonders that all these glories were never seen before. 
His whole heart is arrested and occupied with the 
objects and excitements of this first love. 

But there are many hindrances surrounding this in- 
fantile state of grace. Though at first, the young be- 
liever fondly imagines that he has escaped beyond the 
reach of his enemies, that they have sunk as lead into 
the waters, to rise no more ; he soon hears behind him, 
that cry of hell, " persecute him, and take him, for there 
is none to deliver him." The enemy presses him with 
innumerable difficulties, because he fears that his hour 
is short. He collects all the varied instruments of 
temptation which are furnished by a world lying in 
wickedness, to cast down one whom the Lord hath 
chosen. Every child of disobedience, every uncon- 
verted, careless man, is ready to cast a snare in his 
way. On one side, the syrens of worldly pleasure 



SER. XV.] THE CHRISTIAN'S HINDRANCES. 233 

are chanting their death-songs in the abodes of the 
thoughtless and giddy. On the other, all the opposi- 
tion of malice, the open derisions even of worldly 
relatives and friends, like the howlings of evening 
wolves, unite to drive him back from his hope of 
peace. At one time he meets a sneer from some 
former companion in folly, at another, a false and un- 
kind construction of the motives, by which he is 
governed in his new determinations. The merely 
nominal Christian, the cold and carnally minded 
professor, hates him, as one who assumes a higher 
standard of religious character than he is pleased 
with. And all unite in the gratification which is felt 
and manifested, if in any thing he seem to come short, 
or if any accidental failure in duty shows him to be 
but partially subdued by grace. These various out- 
ward trials are severe. He looks round upon them 
all with sorrow ; but he has no desire to yield to their 
proposal of desertion from the cause in which he has 
engaged. " Hinder me not," he cries to all. " Enjoy 
your follies if you can, but do not hate or persecute 
me, because I will rather love him who has redeemed 
me from them. I will not turn back. My heart and 
my hopes are fixed upon things which are above. I 
was a poor lost creature once, and Jesus loved me 
and called me by his grace. He has made me his 
servant, and I will not forsake him." 

His own heart too, begins to show him more of his 
native character, and a greater portion of its extent 
of guilt. A fear of difficulties, an unholy desire for 
personal ease and indulgence, rise up within him, and 
give him frequent pain. Then he imagines that he 
could bear any outward trials ; but these wicked 

V 2 30 



234 the christian's hindrances. [SER. XV. 

tempers and appetites, these unreasonable doubts and 
fears, ascending like the smoke from the bottomless 
pit, and clouding the comforts, and obscuring the 
peace of his mind, and shutting out his enjoyment of 
the reconciled countenance of God, form a new trial 
for him, which seems far more difficult to bear, than 
any thing which is outward. How often as he kneels 
before the throne of God in prayer, will his burdened 
spirit cry out in agony, " hinder me not, ensnare 
me not for my ruin ; give me liberty of access to the 
throne of my Redeemer. O, thou Captain of my 
salvation, suffer not mine enemies to triumph over 
me." Then, how encouraging is the recollection, 
that the Lord hath prospered his way; that Jesus 
sought him in mercy when he was dead in sins, re- 
vealed to him the glorious sufficiency of his cross, 
and came to dwell in his heart by faith, as his hope 
of glory! The remembrance of what the Lord hath 
already done for him, raises up his heart again with 
confidence and rejoicing. The blessings which have 
already attended him, inspire him with new ardour, and 
render yet more eager and determined his desires and 
exertions for victory and rest. He is strengthened 
even by the conflict, and grows in an humble and 
active dependence upon the Lord his Righteousness, 
as his selfish trust is overthrown, and his own weak- 
ness is displayed to his view. 

III. But hindrances do not disappear, even when 
men become old in grace. Our text may, therefore, 
be the petition of the Christian who is established in 
the faith, " hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath pros- 
pered my way." Through the whole period of a 
mortal life, he not only dwells in the land of enemies, 



SER. XV.] THE CHRISTIAN'S HINDRANCES. 235 

but drags about with himself, a weight which is pain- 
fully retarding. The negligence, and sometimes the 
contempt, which he must consent to endure from the 
careless and ungodly, the opposition to which he must 
be frequently exposed, even from those of his own 
household, the evident contradiction to all his prin- 
ciples of conduct, by which the characters of others 
around him are marked, and the difficulties with which 
he contends, in his efforts to establish the Redeemer's 
truth, are often painful and oppressive hindrances. 
He may have passed beyond the attractions of sinful 
indulgences, and have risen altogether above the fear 
of man. But in his intercourse with other men, he 
experiences new difficulties which are by no means 
of less importance. He has deeper views of the 
fallen character and miserable condition of unre- 
generate men. He has more ardent desires for their 
salvation. He mourns with deeper feeling for the 
wickedness which overspreads the earth. As he 
looks around among men, truth seems to have perish- 
ed, and righteousness to be clean gone forever. His 
heart sinks within him, at a view of the dangers and 
destruction which ungodly men bring upon them- 
selves. So limited are the effects which the Gospel 
appears to have produced, so many and great are the 
inconsistencies with its holy principles, which he sees 
in many of its professors, such is the hardness of 
heart with which its sacred truths are repelled by the 
majority of men, even among some who are most dear 
to himself, that he finds in all these things a severe 
trial and temptation to his mind. Often, as he seeks 
to do good to men, these difficulties crowd together 
before him Often, as he seeks an access to the 



236 the christian's hindrances. [SER. XV. 

throne of God, they overwhelm all his efforts to pray. 
Exerting himself to rise above them, he cries, "hinder 
me not;" " draw me not back from him whom my soul 
loveth ; destroy not my efforts to labour for him ; for, 
though all others forsake him, yet will not I." 

Besides these outward hindrances, he has also pe- 
culiar temptations within his own heart. There 
arises often around him, a cloud of darkness, which 
hides all his evidences of grace, and conceals the 
blessed witness which God has given him within 
himself. Momentary feelings of unbelief intrude 
themselves into his breast. Occasional coldness and 
torpidity spreads itself through the members of his 
spiritual man, threatening permanent paralysis and 
death. He obtains larger conceptions of the depra- 
vity of his own heart ; and his soul often sickens over 
the views which are presented to him, as the Spirit 
of God carries him still farther into its recesses, and 
exposes to his observation greater abominations than 
he has seen before. Humbled and cast down with a 
consciousness of his own unworthiness to appear be- 
fore God, he can hardly look up to the pure and holy 
character of him who inhabiteth eternity, without a 
feeling of despair. So ungrateful, so wandering, so 
unnecessarily sinful, has been the whole conduct of 
his life, that he deeply realizes the shame and confu- 
sion of face which belong to him, and his unworthi- 
ness to be called a child of God. Defects of cha- 
racter which used to be overlooked, and to give him 
no pain, now fill his mind with distress. He looks 
upon himself with more and more aversion, and with 
a deeper consciousness of his guilt. He feels more 
conscious also, that God must abhor him, and cannot 



SER. XV.] THE CHRISTIAN'S HINDRANCES. 237 

behold him but with displeasure ; except as he is seen 
in the righteousness of God his Saviour. Such feel- 
ings press upon him as a heavy burden ; often crush 
all his attempts to pray ; and compel him to cry out 
in the agony of a broken spirit, " wretched man that 
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this 
death?" Then does he exclaim in the language of 
our text, " hinder me not, for the Lord hath prospered 
my way." " Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy, 
though I fall, yet shall I rise again ; and though I sit 
in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. Sin 
has been pardoned ; God has received, and is able to 
keep me. I have entered into a covenant with him, 
from which I will never shrink, to walk before him, 
and to be his forever. And though I be not so with 
God, as I much desire to be, yet hath he made with 
me an everlasting covenant, in all things well ordered 
and sure, which is all my salvation, and all my desire." 
IV. Lastly, I may consider this as the demand of 
the faithful minister of the Gospel. " Hinder me not, 
seeing the Lord hath prospered my way." The evi- 
dence that God has prospered his way, that through 
his labours, the Lord has added many souls unto his 
church of such as shall be saved, furnishes a comfort 
beyond expression, to the faithful minister, the man 
who watches for souls, as one that must give an ac- 
count. This joy would be vastly increased, were 
there none disposed to hinder his way, and to retard 
the progress of the word of God. But the opposing 
passions and habits of sinful men, the long-indulged 
unbelief which has taken possession of their minds, 
the cold and lifeless system of religion which has 
been adopted by many professors of the Gospel, the 



238 the christian's HINDRANCES. [SER. XV. 

indolence of multitudes who are not willing to count 
all but loss for Christ's sake, are important hindrances 
in the way of his success. If the shepherd be smit- 
ten, the sheep will be easily scattered abroad. What- 
ever, therefore, the adversary can do to hinder his 
usefulness, and to counteract his exertions, will un- 
doubtedly be called into requisition. A thousand 
worldly inducements are presented to draw him back. 
A thousand discouragements in the character and ex- 
amples of professed fellow-labourers are thrown in 
his way. If a deep solicitude for the souls of men 
lead him to exhort, admonish, and entreat, with all 
long-suffering and doctrine, a strong repugnance is 
often excited against his preaching of the truth. If 
any are awakened under the word from his mouth,by 
the Spirit of God, an opposing influence is imme- 
diately brought into operation. Some enemy will 
scoff, or some false friend will lead away those whom 
God hath thus far blessed, from an influence so ex- 
citing. Trials from the world abroad, and trials from 
the professing church around him, continually beset 
his path. And what can sustain the minister of Christ 
in such a contest, save the prospering power of God, 
and the affectionate co-operation and prayers of those 
surrounding friends in Christ, whose hearts the Lord 
hath opened to receive the truth? His solemn de- 
mand upon every opposer of the Gospel, is, " hinder 
me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my way." 
" I have a momentous undertaking committed to me. 
The souls of men are perishing around me. Sinners 
must be rescued from eternal ruin. Multitudes are 
desiring salvation, and must be guided to the holy and 
immaculate Lamb of God. Wolves are ready to 



SER. XV.] THE CHRISTIAN'S HINDRANCES.' 239 

break in upon the fold, and the flock of the Lord 
must be protected and sustained. God has set me 
forth for the defence of his truth, and wo is unto me, 
if I preach not the Gospel." 

This is my present petition to every sinful heart 
before me. Hinder not the operation of the truth of 
God. Let the Holy Spirit produce his perfect work 
of mercy in your hearts, showing your unworthiness, 
and displaying to you the new and glorious way of 
life eternal, which is laid open to you in the Gospel. 
Make no efforts to countenance your native alienation 
from God. Nothing can effectually hinder your con- 
version unto God, but the obstacles which yourselves 
interpose. If you are ready to yield to his will, he 
will overturn within you every sinful feeling, and 
bring your whole soul into captivity to the obedience 
of Christ. Upon yourselves God has made it to de- 
pend, whether our way shall be prospered among you. 
O, may he mercifully lead you to give his word free 
course, that it may be glorified here, in persuading 
you all to seek the salvation of God. 



SERMON XVI. 



DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. 



Jeremiah vi. 4. — Wo unto us! for the day goeth away, for the shadows 
of the evening are stretched out. 

The subject which from this text I design to com- 
mend to your notice, is an old age without piety. It 
is truly a painful subject. But it is one to which 
faithfulness in duty requires us to call the serious 
attention of procrastinating man. In the remarks 
which I shall have occasion to make upon this subject, 
so far as they are addressed to those who have not 
yet attained this late period of life, it will be my duty 
to employ the most solemn admonition and warning. 
In regard to those among my hearers, who are already 
aged, or who are verging upon it in the declining years 
of manhood, it becomes me to use the utmost tender- 
ness of manner, without yielding at all the solemnity 
of warning, or the ardour of persuasion. 

The command of St. Paul to Timothy was, " re- 
buke not an elder, but entreat him as a father, and the 
elder women as mothers." The same spirit of com- 
passionate respect, the law of God has also enjoined, 

240 



SER. XVI.] DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. 241 

in directing our deportment towards the aged. " The 
nakedness of thy father, and the nakedness of thy 
mother, thou shalt not uncover." "Thou shalt rise up 
before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old 
man, and fear thy God; I am the Lord." In the spirit 
of these precepts, would I govern my present remarks. 
It is my desire, in the meekness of wisdom which the 
Gospel requires, to show the inevitable danger and 
sorrow which they must entail upon themselves, who 
come to the winter days of man, unpardoned, un- 
clothed, and without hope ; and in opposition to this, 
the comfort and peace which he will enjoy, whose 
hoary head is found in the way of righteousness. 

It may be that some who hear me, will feel con- 
strained to adopt the mournful exclamation of the text 
in regard to themselves. Their time for labour is 
drawing to its close, and in the deepening shadows of 
the evening, no light is seen to guide and cheer them 
through the approaching darkness. If I address any 
who have lived for many years in the midst of divine 
mercies, and of the abundant privileges of divine 
grace, and are conscious that they are yet unreconciled 
to God, I would not utter to them a single word of 
reproach. I would entreat them as fathers and 
mothers, to give glory to the Lord their God, before 
he cause darkness, and their feet stumble upon the 
dark mountains, and while they look for light, he turn 
it into the shadow of death, and make it gross dark- 
ness. If they begin to see and to feel, the desolate 
condition of an old age without the presence of a 
reconciled God ; if they find themselves fast hasten- 
ing to an eternal world, without the certain hope and 

comfort which the Gospel gives; I would beseech 
X 31 



2i2 DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. [SER. XVI. 

them to devote with just so much the greater earnest- 
ness, their few remaining days to the vast concerns 
of their approaching judgment, and their endless 
being. 

None of you can think the present subject an inap- 
propriate one, who have observed how many of the 
most respected portion of our community, in an ad- 
vanced period of life, have yet made no open profes- 
sion of their attachment to the Saviour, but still 
habitually turn away from the table of the Lord, as 
if they had no need of the provisions of divine grace. 
To such would I seriously and affectionately address 
the considerations arising from our present text. I 
desire them to receive the word of exhortation to 
which they listen, while we speak of the difficulties 
and sorrows of old age without piety, the trials and 
cares of the aged sinner, who has found no personal 
interest for himself in the merits of a Saviour, and 
in the abiding comforts of his love. 

The DIFFICULTIES OF THE AGED SINNER, is the 

subject of our present discourse. " Wo unto us ! 
for the day goeth away, and the shadows of the even- 
ing are stretched out." 

I. "The day goeth away;" this presents the first 
difficulty to be noticed. That period of life during 
which the Saviour grants to men the privileges of his 
Gospel, is known in the Scriptures under this desig- 
nation. It is a day-— the day of salvation. It is a 
day in which he waits for the sinner's repentance, and 
is especially ready to aid and to bless his efforts to 
return to him; a day in which the Holy Spirit attends 
the preaching of the word, and makes it effectual in 
the hearts of those who believe. The great object 



SER. XVI.] DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. 243 

to be attained by man during the continuance of this 
day, is a reconciliation to God, and the consequent 
enjoyment of his favour and love. They who seek 
him early in this day, have a promise that they shall 
find him. Then, the way of return to him is open 
and easily found, and is filled with assurance and en- 
couragement to those who enter upon it. 

But in advanced age, this reconciliation to God 
is rendered embarrassing and painful by this first 
difficulty, " the day goeth away." The appointed 
period of grace is coming rapidly to its conclusion. 
The aged sinner looks back upon a long duration of 
mercy which has passed by him unimproved. Every 
privilege of the Gospel has brought with it an indivi- 
dual responsibility. None of its advantages can have 
been enjoyed without the attendant obligation to 
render an account. And O, how solemn, how accu- 
mulated, is the record which must stand against that 
man who has for twenty, perhaps, for thirty years or 
more, received from God the ample provisions of the 
Gospel, and yet derived no benefit from them for his 
own soul ! The heathen, who in his old age, for the 
first time listens to the invitations and promises of the 
Gospel, has in them but the commencement of this 
day of grace, and is regarded under the same aspect 
as a child in a Christian land, with similar opportuni- 
ties of attaining religious knowledge. But the aged 
man in a land of Christian light, has had from the be- 
ginning of his life, the privileges which are first offered 
to the idolator in his latter days. And how respon- 
sible and hazardous is such a condition ! Two thou- 
sand solemn public calls of the Gospel are to be ac- 
counted for by some of my hearers, besides the vast 



244 DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. [SER. XVI, 

multitude of private opportunities of knowledge, 
which have produced no beneficial influence upon 
their character or their prospects. How alarming is 
the danger of being thrust down to hell under this 
load of wasted privileges and blessings from heaven ! 
How serious is the difficulty which this neglected 
period of mercy interposes to a spiritual return to 
God! 

" The day goeth away." It has been enjoyed in 
the fulness of its privileges. It has been for some, 
far protracted. But while it has been thus unim- 
proved, it has tended only to increase the guilt and 
danger of the soul. For fifty years the Redeemer 
has called upon some now aged sinner to turn to him 
and live. For fifty years, angels have watched for 
the hour of his conversion. For fifty years, divine 
Providence has crowned his ways with loving-kind- 
ness and tender mercy. For fifty years, there has 
been consternation in hell, lest he should be per- 
suaded to accept the Saviour's invitations, and flee 
from the captivity of Satan. But, up to this hour, 
amidst the whole of this surrounding interest in his 
determination, his mind still remains alienated from 
God. To drive away the convictions of his youth, 
the Saviour was answered by a promise for the years 
of maturity. In maturity, he was put off to a yet 
more advanced age, by the cares and labours of life, 
which had then so multiplied around the man, that no 
time could be given to the soul. And now the de- 
clining years of life have come, and what is to be the 
final result ? Satan is now tempting him to sit down 
in sullen despair, under the feeling that when so much 
time has gone by, there can be no remaining room for 



SER. XVI.] DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. 245 

hope ; that he is too old to change a course of habits 
which have been for so many years contracted and 
indulged ; and that it is better for him now to submit 
with fortitude to that which has become a kind of ne- 
cessity for his soul. When we offer to him now, the 
kind and precious invitations of the Gospel, he can 
answer, " I would gladly accept them, but alas, I have 
wasted so much time ; I have lived so long in a care- 
less state of mind upon this great subject ; I have had 
so many mercies which have not been improved ; that 
I have now no hope of being able to return. The 
day goeth away ; and I fear I must submit to a night 
of darkness, without comfort and without hope." O, 
how distressing is this condition of an aged sinner ! 
How difficult is it to arouse him to a consciousness, 
or belief, of the privileges which are yet remaining, 
and of the duty which yet rests upon him ! He 
thinks he would rejoice to return to an offended God, 
but the recollection of wasted opportunities drives 
him to despair, and he fears that there remains no 
hope for his soul, if he should attempt it. 

II. A second difficulty which the text suggests as 
attending upon the aged sinner, is the short period 
of grace which is now remaining for him. "The 
shadows of the evening are stretched out." Many 
years have passed by him without improvement. But 
few, very few, at the best, are now left for the attain- 
ment of his soul's salvation. As life passes by, the 
work to be done increases, in the same proportion 
that the time in which it is to be done is diminished. 
That reconciliation to God, which in youth was com- 
paratively easy, becomes in this advanced period of 
life so difficult, that it seems well nigh impossible. 
x2 



246 DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. [SER. XVI. 

The man who has postponed the care of his soul to 
the last hours of life, finds when these hours arrive, 
that he has so much work to do in other relations in 
which he finds himself placed, that his soul's salvation 
becomes almost hopeless. Standing upon the verge 
of eternity, and looking into the darkness which there 
spreads before him, the aged sinner feels, that the 
danger which was before little heeded, and considered 
quite remote, is now near and dreadful. Beholding 
the unchanging holiness of God contrasted with his 
own continued alienation from him, he sees that the 
distance between himself and his Creator, has been 
immeasurably increased by this voluntary estrange- 
ment. In his youth he had wandered widely from 
his God. But now he finds himself to have gone so 
much farther astray, that the period of youth seems 
to be comparatively, a period of innocence. 

And now, how shall he travel back over this whole 
distance by which he is separated from an holy God ? 
It has taken him, perhaps, fifty years, to accomplish 
his outward bound journey. Can he hope for fifty 
years more, as a period for his return? He set out 
early in the morning to go astray from God. Through 
the whole day, he has been pressing forward in his 
course, with unabating rapidity. And now, when the 
day has gone, and the shadows of the evening are 
stretched out, and exhausted nature is asking for re- 
pose ; alas, is this an hour in which to commence the 
journey of a day? Is this a time in which to begin 
a work, which as soon as it is commenced, midnight 
darkness may at once arrest forever? Death now 
stands at the door. The line which separates him 
from eternity, has dwindled to a hair. And he is 



SER. XVI.] DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. 247 

tempted to yield to total despair of escaping at all 
from the ruin which is so close upon him. The diffi- 
culty which his own heart presents as thus arising 
from his shortened remaining period of probation, 
Satan employs as a temptation to him, to be quiet and 
careless under his conscious load of sin. He ac- 
knowledges that he ought to have made up his mind 
before this time, as to a course of duty, for his life. 
But he answers all the admonitions which are given 
him to excite him now to action, that if he has been 
all this time wrong, it will be a hopeless undertaking, 
at this late period, to enter upon a better course and 
system. The pride and the stability of age inter- 
fere. He cannot yield to those strong cryings and 
tears, which might make up in some degree for the 
loss of time, and do in a little while the work of 
many years. He cannot make any sudden changes 
now. He cannot, and he does not wish, to obtain or 
exercise a spirit of deep and agonizing earnestness 
for his soul. There is no opportunity for the perfect- 
ing of any slower or more gradual work. There is 
no time left him to finish such an undertaking. Thus 
he argues against himself, and against those who love 
his precious but ruined soul. If he had to begin his 
life anew, he freely confesses that he would not pass it 
as he has done. He cheerfully advises those who are 
young, by no means to follow his example of procras- 
tination, but in the commencement of their life, to make 
provision for their eternity. But while he gives this 
advice to others, he feels himself compelled to pursue 
the course in which he has been so long engaged. 
Thus it is, that aged parents can behold their chil- 
dren experiencing the power of religion, rejoicing in 



248 DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. [SER. XVI. 

the life and happiness of the Gospel, and uniting 
themselves to the people of God ; and can even feel a 
degree of pleasure at the sight, because they know it 
is the only path of safety or peace ; while they them- 
selves remain far from the ways of God, and are 
living, and are willing to live, without any interest in 
the covenant of redeeming mercy ; so many difficul- 
ties surround the possibility of their return to God, 
that the remaining time is not sufficient to remove 
them. 

III. A third difficulty in the way of the aged sinner, 
arises from the increased hardness of his own heart. 
He cannot now attain the liveliness of feeling which 
marked the period of his youth. When he was young, 
conviction of sin impressed his mind. The solemn 
proclamations of religious truth awakened his atten- 
tion. His eyes could weep under the preaching of 
the Gospel. His affections could be attracted by the 
inviting hopes and promises which it offered. He 
then often felt strongly excited towards a life of holi- 
ness and piety. But now he has no such feelings. 
He sits unmoved beneath the preaching of the divine 
word. The rain which descends to refresh others, 
seems rather to hasten his decay. In the pathetic 
description of Barzillai, " he can no more hear the 
voice of singing men, or of singing women." His ears 
have grown dull with age, and the most awakening 
calls of truth can produce no influence upon his mind. 
He often wishes that he were as in months past, when 
the candle of the Lord shined upon his habitation ; 
that he could renew again the awakened feelings and 
anxious desires of an earlier period. He sometimes 
looks with a kind of envy upon younger persons who 



SER. XVI.] DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. 249 

are brought under the renewing influence of the Gos- 
pel ; and he longs, as he thinks, to bend in humble- 
ness of mind, at the Saviour's feet. But he can find 
no place for repentance. He cannot exercise a godly- 
sorrow. The summer and the harvest have passed 
without advantage, and every succeeding day of 
autumn, seems only to dry, and harden, and seal up 
the earth, against the arrival of a frost-bound and 
cheerless winter. 

This hardness of heart, the necessary effect of a 
long continuance in an unconverted state of character, 
forms a most serious difficulty in the way of an aged 
sinner's return to God. I do not here speak of any 
judicial hardening of the heart by the power of God. 
Under such a sentence, it is vain to talk of difficulties. 
But I refer to the universal and natural effect of a 
continued rejection of the Gospel, to show how en- 
tirely unfit, a late period of life is, for the attainment 
of the deep and pervading emotions of a renewed and 
spiritual mind. The rapid passage of the day renders 
every hour which is left, of tenfold importance. The 
stretching out of the shadows of the evening, admonish 
the aged man, " what thou doest, do quickly." But 
this encasing of the affections, this hard and callous 
state of the heart, blocks up the way, and prevents the 
accomplishment of the work which remains still to 
be done. A tyrant necessity drives man on to run 
with untried rapidity, and he has so bound fetters 
around his own feet, that he has not power to move. 
Many a long-lived sinner attempts in the last hours 
of life, like aged Joab, to cling to the horns of the 
altar for protection, and finds that even there, his 
hoary hairs, the monuments only of long-continued 

32 



250 DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. [SER. XVI. 

rebellion and sin, cannot come down to the grave in 
peace. 

IV. The fourth difficulty in the way of the conver- 
sion of the aged sinner to which I would refer, is the 
pride of character which is always an attendant upon 
advanced periods of life. There is but one way of 
salvation opened for man whether young or old. He 
must come down at the Saviour's feet as an humble, 
heart-broken sinner, to obtain pardon and peace in 
his atonement, and acceptance with God freely through 
him. This implies an acknowledgment, that through 
the whole preceding life, he has been in a state of 
rebellion against God, that he has gone astray from 
his birth, that he is now anxious to come entirely back 
to the point from whence heat first set out, and to seek 
the free and undeserved mercy of a Saviour, whom he 
has hitherto rejected. This to the proud nature of 
man, is a most humiliating course. The pride of age 
rebels at once against it. The wandering child can 
go home to a pious parent, with a broken spirit, and 
a weeping eye, and confess the shame and sorrow, 
which the remembrance of a life of sin produces. But 
a parent who has grown old without an experience of 
religion, cannot come down, to ask the counsel and 
prayers, of a child who has found the Saviour and is 
rejoicing in his love. The pride of age prohibits such 
a course. The heart may be often moved, the con- 
science awakened, and the emotions aroused, in the 
bosom of an aged transgressor, and a strong desire be 
felt, to lay down his burden, and find peace in believ- 
ing in Jesus. But an assumed dignity and coolness 
of manner are drawn over a broken, bleeding spirit, 
because an acknowledgment of these awakened feel- 



SER. XVI.] DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. 251 

ings, will be so humiliating to the age and station of 
the individual concerned. But there remains no other 
course of safety. To this humbling ground, sinful 
man must be brought, or he will assuredly perish. 
Age furnishes no exemption. Nay, so far from doing 
this, it requires still deeper abasement, from the longer 
continuance in guilt. 

This difficulty is now preventing, and has long been 
preventing the return of many aged hearers of the 
Gospel, to God. They are convinced, as they listen 
to its calls, of the necessity and advantage of the 
course pointed out. They almost resolve to pursue 
it. But when they return from the sanctuary of God 
to their own homes, the confession to children, and 
servants, and friends, that they have been all this time 
in the wrong, is so painful and repulsive to their minds, 
that they cannot yield. Perhaps the determination is 
made to commence a course of family worship, to 
enter upon a succession, of Christian duties and re- 
quirements, long neglected ; perhaps the hand is actu- 
ally laid upon the Bible, to commence the work ; when 
the heart flutters with indecision, and the pride of age 
rises up, and chokes the utterance, and takes away the 
strength. If there were some more secret, and less 
humiliating way opened, they would embrace it ; but 
probably this increasing pride will always forbid their 
coming down to the humbled spirit of a child, to seek 
the salvation which is freely offered to their acceptance. 
With such a difficulty thus submitted to in their way, 
they may well adopt the exclamation of our text. " Wo 
unto us! for the day goeth away, and the shadows 
of the evening are stretched out." " The harvest is 
past, and the summer is ended, and we are not saved." 



252 DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. [SER. XVI. 

Their whole work of salvation is to be accomplished, 
and their hearts are now found so hardened and proud, 
that they are unable to set out upon the great work, 
which the whole of life is little enough to finish. 

In concluding this discourse, I would earnestly im- 
press upon your minds, the thoughts which have been 
presented. Many of you, my friends, have lived past 
the middle point of life, and yet are without God in the 
world. How improvident would you consider your- 
selves to be, if you had waited until this time, without 
selecting for yourselves, a business for the present life, 
or without beginning to lay up any thing in this world, 
for yourselves, or your families ! What would you 
think of the man or woman, forty years of age, who 
was just agitating the question, what course of life 
shall I pursue to obtain my bread ? If this subject 
had never gained attention until then, you would deem 
it almost an hopeless attempt, to consider it at all. 
But how many have passed this age, and have never 
entered upon the work of their soul's salvation ! Per- 
haps some of them have hardly thought of the question 
whether they have souls to save. How sad is this 
condition! How many difficulties surround their 
way ! The path of religion seems so much blocked 
up, that salvation appears almost beyond their reach. 

You will say, that this view is most discouraging. 
Nothing, my brethren, is so discouraging, as this care- 
lessness of habit, from which I desire to arouse you. 
You had far better feel despair, than feel nothing. 
When you do despond, we may hope, that you will 
embrace the arm extended for your rescue. The 
thoughts which have been now pressed upon your 
attention ought to excite you, to an earnest, deter- 



SEE,. XVI.] DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. 253 

mined exertion for your eternal safety. Your time is 
short. Your difficulties are many. Your work is 
arduous. Still eternal safety is within your reach, 
and your escape is not impossible. If you would set 
yourselves immediately and earnestly about it, God 
would remove the difficulties, and give you success. 
Nothing is wanting in God. You are not straitened 
in him. If you will be reconciled to him, in his ap- 
pointed Saviour, you will find peace. If you will still 
reject him, your difficulties will still increase. And as 
the day sinks in darkness, and the shadows of the 
evening are stretched out, to be soon lost in unchang- 
ing night, a deeper, and a deeper wo, will be sounded 
from your souls, and echoed back upon you, from the 
regions of despair. O fly from impending ruin to the 
arms of Jesus. However painful and humbling the 
outset may be, the humbling step is but one. Be will- 
ing to be abased before God, that he may exalt you 
in due time. Accept the righteousness of Jesus, and 
be found in him, converted and sanctified, and you 
shall be happy and secure. But if you still delay, 
every day will make the matter worse ; and what the 
end shall be, your own consciences are fully able to 
declare. 



SERMON XVII. 



THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. 



Ecclesiastes vi. 3.— if a man live many years, so that the days of his 
years are many, and his soul be not filled with good, I say that an 
untimely birth is better than he. 

Long life has ever been esteemed by man as a great 
and desirable blessing. In the early periods of the 
world, the number of years which were comprised in 
such a life, was so great, that in our present expe- 
rience, we can hardly imagine the appearance or the 
feelings of a man, whose locks were the growth of cen- 
turies, and who had lived, to behold the descent of 
many hundreds of immortal beings from himself. 
When the fallen nature of man had transformed this 
lengthened period of trial, into a more extended pro- 
gress of iniquity, a more unfathomable depth of sin, the 
divine Creator cut down in successive generations, man's 
opportunity of rebellion against himself, to less than one- 
tenth the period first granted to the human race. No 
longer like the oak witnessing the passage of centuries, 
now, we all do fade as a leaf. At the utmost ordinary 
limit, the days of man are but threescore years and 
ten. The wish for long life can hardly extend itself, 
beyond this narrow compass of man's numbered days. 

254 



SER. XVII.] THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. 255 

Few in fact attain this utmost limit. And men are 
accustomed to arrange their plans for business and 
exertion, within a far narrower compass, than the 
hope of this would allow them. In our worldly occu- 
pations, we are governed by the principle, that what 
is to be done, must be done quickly. No man in the 
possession of his reason, thinks of laying out a plan 
for the acquisition of wealth, or for the attainment of 
any object of mere worldly desire, which is to be com- 
menced, when he has attained the age of threescore 
years and ten. To say, that he would then set out, 
upon a business which his whole life should have been 
employed in finishing, and the care for which should 
at that time be dismissed, from a mind which needs to be 
at rest from labour, would justly stamp a man with the 
reputation of insanity. He who should announce his 
intention to bind himself when he had attained the age 
of seventy, as an apprentice to a trade, or to enter as 
a pupil in a school, or even to plant an orchard in his 
ground, with the hope of eating of the fruit which it 
should bear him, would be an object of pity or ridi- 
cule. And yet how many are hoping to prepare for 
an eternal occupation, and to attain an inexhaustible 
knowledge, in this last flickering of human existence ! 
In the business of this world, men are wise. It is 
only when we bring them to the concerns of a world 
to come, that they seem to have laid the dominion 
of reason aside. 

But what is the real object, for which the present 
life of man has been bestowed, and is prolonged ? Is 
it to acquire a trade ? to obtain an education in science? 
or to lay up treasures which may be moth-eaten and 
destroyed ? If we should derive our answer from the 



256 THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. [SER. XVII. 

habits of mankind, it would seem to be this. But if 
we go to the wisdom of God, for our reply, there is 
presented before us a far different end. In our text, 
the wise preacher supposes a man to have seen the 
utmost possible limit of human existence. And then 
he estimates the worth of the whole of this proud and 
protracted life, if it has passed without the acquisition 
of that object which the word of God proposes for 
the attainment of man. " If a man live many years, so 
that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not 
filled with good, I say that an untimely birth is better 
than he ; for he cometh in with vanity, and departeth 
in darkness, and his name shall be covered with dark- 
ness." One far wiser than Solomon, has given us the 
same estimate, in that striking demand which he has 
built upon man's universal love for gain, " what shall it 
profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his 
own soul ?" When he has examined his account in 
the light of eternity, how much will it appear that he 
has gained in exchange for his soul? Perhaps the 
experience of some who hear me, may soon furnish 
them, the exact, and the only adequate reply to these 
demands, and constrain them to adopt our Lord's as- 
sertion in reference to Judas, in its application to them- 
selves, " it had been good for us if we had not been 
born." "For who can dwell with the devouring fire ? 
who can dwell with everlasting burnings?" 

In speaking upon this all-important subject, we will 
consider first, 

I. What is the great object of human life. 
And, 

II. The sorrows of the man who has lived 

LONG WITHOUT ATTAINING IT. 



SER. XVII.] THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. 257 

I. The great object for which the present life of 
man was given, is that " the soul may be filled with 
good.' 7 It was to gain this, that each one has been 
placed in his period of earthly education. It is for 
this alone, that divine forbearance lengthens out to 
grey hairs, the life of man who has not yet secured it, 
to give to men, the full opportunity to be wise, and to 
think of the things which belong to their peace. The 
possession of an immortal soul, a soul which must be 
rejoicing in unspeakable good, or lamenting in unut- 
terable evils, ages after the body in which it has dwelt, 
has returned to dust as it was, forms man's chief 
distinction from the brutes which perish. 

How then shall this soul be filled with good ? Is 
there any thing within the limits of the gifts of this 
world, which can thus fill it? Is there any creature 
on earth, which can form a recompense for its loss ? 
Can any proud neglecter of God carry the wealth of 
the present world, to bribe the flames, or to corrupt 
the tormentors, of a world to come ? Can he buy out 
his pardon with money ? When he can sow grace in 
the furrows of his field, or fill his barns with glory, 
when he can plough up heaven from the earth, and 
extract God from perishing creatures, the world may 
fill his soul with good and furnish an adequate ex- 
change for its loss. 

But who does not see, the utter disproportion be- 
tween the desires of the soul, and all the fruits which 
earth produces ? The sinner is descending, where his 
earthly glory cannot descend after him, and where, for 
a soul unredeemed, all redemption ceaseth forever. 
Naked he came into the world, and naked must he 
leave it again. He has to stand, where his soul will 
y2 33 



258 THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. [SER. XVIL 

constitute his all ; where the crowns of kings, and the 
shackles of prisoners, the robes of princes, and the 
rags of beggars will form no distinctions : where all 
classes of men must answer upon an equal footing and 
plea, for eternity; and where, an experience of the 
power of godliness in a life of probation, will form the 
only ground for hope. What then is the good, with 
which the soul must be filled ? 

That man who has found a reconciled God, has 
filled his soul with good. There is none good but one, 
that is God. He who has received Emanuel into his 
heart by faith, so that God dwells in him, and he in 
God, has found the one great abiding good for man. 

The privileges of the Gospel are bestowed, and the 
Saviour's voice is calling, upon man, through his whole 
period of probation, his day of grace, that he may be 
led to seek salvation in that infinite atonement which 
is offered as his only good. In himself, there dwelleth 
no good thing. None of the attainments which are 
within the reach of man's own powers can procure for 
him, the least permanent good. In the unconverted 
soul, there dwelleth nothing, but defilement and guilt 
and ruin. And man has no experience of good, until he 
has been brought, with a broken and contrite spirit, to 
lay down his hopes and desires at the feet of Jesus, and 
to seek for peace and salvation, through his death for 
sin. The converted and justified soul is filled with 
good, because it is made the habitation of God through 
the Spirit. The unconverted soul has not seen God, 
neither known him, and has therefore no good. 

How important then, becomes the doctrine of our 
text ! ■ " If a man live many years, so that the days 
of his years are many, and his soul be not filled with 



SER. XVII.] THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. 259 

good;" if he be still in an unconverted state; if he 
has never submitted his heart to the dominion of the 
Saviour, and has, therefore, no hope or treasure laid 
up for himself in another world ; "I say that an un- 
timely birth is better than he." Any state within 
the conception of man, short of the final and inter- 
minable agonies and despair of a world of recom- 
pense, is preferable to the state of an old man, who 
still refuses the hopes and offers of the Gospel. 

II. I am thus led to my second and main topic of 
remark, the sorrows of the man who has lived long, 
without attaining this great object of life, whose soul 
is not " filled with good." If there be such an one 
before me, I pray him to consider the evils which he 
is bringing upon himself, the sorrows which are multi- 
plying around him, while he is thus without God in 
the world. 

1 . The first of these which we may notice, is that 
he has passed through a life, a reflection upon which 
gives him no comfort. So has the divine Creator 
constituted the human mind, that man is frequently 
impelled to look back upon his own conduct and cha- 
racter. Even when he desires to forget himself, he 
finds that he cannot do it. Past days and years rush 
spontaneously upon his recollection, and bring with 
them their several loads of joy or sorrow, to lay 
them down before him, for his deliberate and in- 
evitable inspection. Man is thus constantly laying 
up something for his latter days. And according as 
he has sown, so must he then reap. 

To the true Christian, this review of life, humbling 
as a knowledge of sin makes it, is in many respects 
highly comforting. It gives him new cause of thank- 



260 THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. [SER. XVII. 

fulness, when he can look back from the vale of age, 
or the bed of death, and see that his life has been 
cheerfully consecrated unto God, who made and who 
has upheld it ; and that Ebenezers, as monuments of 
gratitude for divine goodness, have been set up in 
every path through which he has passed. In the 
midst of all the trials of Job, this retrospect upon the 
divine goodness to him, gave him unspeakable com- 
fort. " When the ear heard me, then it blessed me ; 
and when the eye saw me, it gave witness unto me, 
because I delivered the poor that cried, and the father- 
less, and him that had none to help him ; the blessing 
of him that was ready to perish came upon me, and I 
caused the widow's heart to sing for joy." Such re- 
flections gave him no pain, and he gladly ascribed all 
the glory to the Almighty who was with him, and 
whose candle shined upon his habitation. David 
could say, " I have been young, and now am old, and 
yet saw I never the righteous forsaken." Paul could 
look back upon a long ministry for him who loved 
him when he was in the ignorance of unbelief, and 
say, "lam now ready to be offered, and the time of 
my departure is at hand ; I have fought a good fight, 
I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; 
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of right- 
eousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall 
give me in that day." In a similar spirit, and with 
like comfort, every aged disciple may look back upon 
his life, and the reflection will be made to impart to 
him, real and important consolation. 

But what sorrow and self-crimination arises from 
the recollection of a wasted life ! No beam of light 
is cast upon the mind for any act or feeling which 



SER. XVII.] THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. 261 

memory brings to view. Every hour rises up as the 
accuser of a guilty conscience. The remembrance of 
youth, is a remembrance of convictions smothered, the 
Holy Spirit resisted, and a Saviour's love despised. 
The thoughts upon manhood present the awful picture, 
of the self-immolation of the sinner's soul to the enemy 
of God and man, upon the altar of worldly gain. The 
latter years as they have collected upon each other, 
and are thrusting him down so rapidly from the earth, 
seem ready to fall upon him with their neglected privi- 
leges, and to grind him to powder. All the resolu- 
tions and plans which were made for life, have gone by 
unfulfilled. Every opportunity has been lost. Every 
mercy has been abused. The various scenes of past 
years, which in their approach, seemed to be a pillar 
of light and hope, now they are looked back upon, 
show no aspect but a thick cloud of darkness and 
despondency. O, what sorrow for the aged sinner, 
does such a life produce ! How often does it lead 
him to exclaim, " O that I had been cut off from the 
womb, that I had perished from my birth !" And 
yet, how many of you, my friends, are thus laying up 
sorrows, which shall consume your flesh, as it were 
fire ! Nothing but sorrow will arise to you, from a 
life which has thus been spent without Christ. Old 
age may be crowned with human glory, loaded with 
earthly wealth, and having every comfort which the 
power of man can give ; but this reflection upon a 
soul destroyed, a Saviour crucified afresh, will tear 
the glory from the royal diadem, and turn the sweetest 
joys of earth into anguish and poison. 

2. A second sorrow of old age without piety, is 
that man is pressing onward to a near eternity, for 



262 THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. [SER. XVII. 

which he has no preparation. The only preparation 
which any sinner can have for a happy eternity, con- 
sists in his being found in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
clothed with his righteousness, and freely ransomed 
through his blood. Eternity itself cannot be avoided. 
There is no discharge in that war. Man is pressed 
forward to the valley of the shadow of death with a 
resistless force. Whether he be prepared or unpre- 
pared, he must appear before the judgment seat of 
Christ. This course is altogether inevitable. In 
youth, the thought of it seems to be easily removed, 
because the day of parting appears to be so far off. 
The youth may live to be an old man, and he imagines 
that he will then find time and opportunity enough, to 
take care of his soul. But when old age has actually 
arrived, the hour of death cannot be far removed. 
Soon then, the body must dissolve, and the immortal 
spirit must go to bear witness for itself before the 
throne of the heart-searching God. The prospect 
which was before a distant one, now comes to the 
very door. The man stands upon the margin of the 
ocean. It spreads itself before him, with an incon- 
ceivable magnitude. But what is the peculiar view 
upon which his eye must rest? Does this ocean 
shine beneath the glories of the sun? Does every 
image of beauty seem to be reflected from its waters, 
and sweet and enduring peace to abide upon its glassy 
surface? Does its attractive stillness tempt him to 
launch upon its bosom with confidence and hope ? or, 
does he see it agitated with tempests, lashed into fury 
with a mighty wind, rising up in anger to the very 
heavens, exposing in its heavings, the deep abyss of 
hell, tossing upon its waters, the sad mementos of a 



SER. XVII.] THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. 263 

thousand shipwrecks, and proclaiming in every roar- 
ing which strikes upon his ear, that there, there is no 
safety for his soul ? Does he feel himself drawn for- 
ward by the joyous notes and cheerful music of those 
who are floating in everlasting security upon its bosom? 
or is he driven back upon himself, by the wailings of 
anguish which burst from its depths, and finally, in 
defiance of his last convulsive grasp upon some poor 
shrub of earthly confidence, is he plunged forever into 
the terrors which an avenging Judge has prepared for 
his guilty soul ? 

O, how much is involved for man in such a contrast! 
It all rests upon the single point, the one grand fact, 
has he made provision for judgment, has he sought 
and obtained a refuge in the abundant redemption of 
a Saviour's obedience unto death? How truly is that 
old age which has no such provision for eternity, and 
to which " hope comes not, that comes to all" besides, 
an evil day, in which man finds no pleasure ! I 
wonder not that the aged sinner clings with such 
tenacity to life. I wonder not that he dreads to leave 
a world, beyond which there is no hope for his soul. 
I wonder not that he fears an endless condition of 
sorrow and anguish under the wrath of an offended 
God. But O, how unwise is he, to expose himself to 
this ! Whatever he may have gotten of earthly 
goods, how is he profited ? Every day is now 
counted, like the days of a criminal condemned to 
die. To-morrow, and to-morrow, he may be here. 
But the last day is near at hand. The fearful hour 
cannot be far removed, when he must depart without 
hope or comfort, to the presence of an offended God. 
And while an eternity for which he is so little pre 



264, THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. [SER. XVII. 

pared, presses so near upon him, he cannot but feel 
that " an untimely birth is better than he ;" that it 
would be better for him, if he had never been born. 

3. Another sorrow in old age without piety, is, that 
man has experienced the vanity of the world, and has 
nothing which can supply its place. The false paint- 
ings of the world may delude the young, and palm 
themselves upon them for realities. They love to be 
thus deceived. They make no opposition to the de- 
lusions which are thus practised upon them by these 
enticing instruments of Satan. Wealth, and plea- 
sure, and reputation, seem to them to be reasonable 
and proper objects of pursuit ; and in them, the young 
vainly imagine that they can find the satisfaction they 
desire. But the aged have outlived these deceptions. 
They have experienced too much, to be able now to 
believe that the present world can furnish them any 
abiding rest. I am addressing some who can tell me 
they have tasted of every fountain the world can offer, 
and know that but miserable comfort is to be derived 
from them all. Mere sensual indulgence, whether it 
be of a light and giddy character, or of a deeper stain 
of pollution, can offer them nothing. They have no 
desires for which such provisions are suitable. Money 
can do them no good. A grave and a coffin will soon 
be all that they can want, which it can furnish. 
Their own characters present them no consolation, 
though a thousand sycophants should praise their 
course of life, for they see that man judgeth only ac- 
cording to the outward appearance, while God looketh 
upon the heart. "When they were young, they could 
be active and occupied, and could thus divert their 
thoughts from the deep consciousness of deficiency 



SER. XVII.] THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. 265 

which was even then felt. But now, other hands 
have taken their employments. They have been re- 
leased from busy engagements. Many hours in the 
day must be passed in thought, and they cannot help 
thinking of themselves. They are obliged often to 
sit down in a contemplation of their own past and 
future existence ; and so far as any source of comfort 
is concerned, their minds present a perfect blank. 
The world recedes and disappears. Its cisterns are 
all broken ; its springs have become dry ; its flowers 
have withered; its joys are tasteless. And in the 
midst of this wilderness of the soul, they can find no 
fresh springs of hope or peace. Their days are con- 
sumed from the earth, they flee away, and yet they 
see no good. There is nothing now which they think 
they would not give, for a well-grounded hope of ever- 
lasting rest. No joy seems to them so important as 
that which would have arisen from an early and cor- 
dial acceptance of the offered loving-kindness of a 
Saviour. But alas, vain as the world is, it is all they 
have. They have laid up their treasures here. They 
have here sought their joys and comforts ; and they 
have no other more continuing city. They ask for 
religious hope ; but it seems to flee from them. They 
call for a Saviour ; but he appears to turn a deaf ear 
to their cries. They try to persuade themselves that 
they are safe ; but conscience will not be charmed 
into silence. Neither alleged belief nor attempted 
infidelity, can furnish them the mental defence which 
they need. They would be glad to believe that there 
is no future suffering for sin. They sometimes say 
they do believe so. But their hearts cannot rest 
upon this hope. They are troubled and terrified 
Z 34 



266 THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. [SER. XVII. 

still, even with what they affect to call phantoms of 
the imagination. They are thus left without a single 
source of comfort; and while they are struggling 
thus with unconquerable despair, they feel that the 
man who has not an interest in the Saviour, and a sure 
acceptance in his redemption, has no hope, though he 
has gained, when God takes away his soul. 

These three sources of painful reflection are surely 
sufficient to awaken attention to this important sub- 
ject. " If a man live many years, so that the days 
of his years are many, and his soul be not filled with 
good, I say that an untimely birth is better than he." 
Why is it so ? Because he has passed a long life, 
and has no comfort in reflecting upon it; for it is 
only by filling the soul with good, that the remem- 
brance of many days can give us peace. Because he 
is pressed to the very margin of a boundless eternity, 
for which he has made no preparation; for it is only 
a soul filled with good, that can be a preparation for 
eternity. Because he has proved that the world can 
do him no good, and he has nothing to supply its 
place. O, how distressing and dark is an old age like 
this ! How much reason has every unrenewed hearer 
to shake himself from the dust, and to consecrate 
every hour of his remaining life, to this great purpose 
of his soul's salvation! There are many in youth, 
and in the maturity of life, who are postponing to old 
age, that work which ought now to be undertaken, in 
preparation for the judgment-seat of Christ. I would 
convince them of the folly of this self-destruction. 
Why, my friends, why will you persist in seeking the 
living among the dead ? What single rational excuse 
can you present to your minds, for the course which 



SER. XVII.] THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. 261 

you thus pursue ? You are but laying up a store of 
sorrow for yourselves ; provoking a God justly and 
exceeding offended, to withdraw himself from you. 
You are not postponing merely, the hour of your re- 
turn to God ; you are thrusting it from you forever. 
Do not deceive yourselves with any vain calculations 
upon a future repentance. You will never repent 
with any repentance which shall be unto salvation, 
and not to be repented of. Satan rejoices over 
every procrastinating soul, under the assurance, that 
he has accomplished his full design. Let him persuade 
you to abide in the plan of becoming the servants of 
God when old age shall admonish you that death is 
near, and your souls are lost forever. The door of 
hope will be closed. The Gospel, long neglected, 
will be neglected forever. You will go out in dark- 
ness. Evil days in which you find no pleasure, will 
be your eternal portion. Your name will be covered 
with darkness, as one of those whom God has re- 
jected and dismissed into everlasting banishment, 
from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of 
his power. May he give you now the wisdom to lay 
these things truly and profitably to heart. 



SERMON XVIIL 



DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 



Genesis xi. 32. — The days of Terah were two hundred and Jive years, 
and Terah died in Haran. 



Some may be ready to ask, of what practical use, is 
this fact to us ? An attention to the circumstances of 
history which are connected with it, will show the 
purpose of illustration for which I design to employ 
it, and the interest which my hearers have in the ad- 
monition which it gives. 

Terah was the father of Abraham. He dwelt in 
Ur of the Chaldees, east of the river Euphrates. 
There, he was with his whole family in a state of idol- 
atry, " serving other gods," and ignorant and careless 
of the great Being whom they were bound to worship. 
While in this condition of spiritual darkness, " on the 
other side of the flood," as the great river Euphrates 
was called, God commanded him to arise, and to go with 
his family to the land of Canaan, which from that time, 
became the land of promise, the appointed possession 
of the children of Abraham. " God said unto Abram, 
get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and 

268 



SER. XVIII.] DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 269 

from thy father's house, to a land that I will shew 
thee." " And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot, 
the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai his daugh- 
ter-in-law, his son Abram' s wife ; and they went forth 
with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land 
of Canaan ; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt 
there." Haran was on the midway of their commanded 
journey. How long Terah lived here, we cannot tell. 
But either he could not, or he would not, go farther 
on towards the land which God had promised to his 
posterity. Abram, after waiting for his father, it would 
appear for some years, took Sarai and Lot, and went 
on to the land of his promised inheritance in obedience 
to the divine command, and left Terah the old man his 
father, in Haran, and there he died. Terah did not 
however, die immediately. He lived at least sixty 
years after he had seen his son thus go forward in 
obedience to God, being but one hundred and forty- 
five years old, when Abram left him. He had there- 
fore abundant time to follow his son in the path of ap- 
pointed duty. Yet after all, " Terah died in Ha- 
ran." 

At the late period of life in which he was induced to 
obey the divine command, and to leave his native land, 
to go in search of the land which the Lord had pro- 
mised to him and to his children, he found himself 
unable to finish the journey which he had undertaken. 
He stopped in the middle of his appointed course. 
And here, though the command to arise and go, was 
again repeated to him from God, here, he remained 
for the residue of his days. While still in the land of 
idolators and darkness, he gave up his spirit, to be 
judged for his disobedient procrastination; and left 
z2 



270 DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. [SER. XVIII. 

his children to take possession without him, of the good 
land which God had promised them. 

The simple fact, "Terah died in Haran," when 
viewed in this connexion, stands in the Scriptures as a 
monument, like the pillar of salt which uttered its 
warning to every passer by, " remember Lot's wife." 
It exhibits an old man, after his many years spent in 
idolatry and ignorance, attempting in a late obedience 
to divine commands, to remove from his native condi- 
tion and home, to the land of promise ; but wasting in 
procrastination, the time for his journey, and indolently 
staying, upon the road, over which he was required to 
pass, to gain the end placed before his view ; and find- 
ing all his efforts and plans to accomplish his purpose, 
to prove unavailing for his good. He never attained 
the inheritance for which he set out so late, and which 
he pursued so carelessly. He saw his child and his 
grandchild, both go on before him, to the place of their 
desire and hope ; while he was left, and alas, found 
himself willing to be left, to die alone, upon the road to 
that home, which they were to enjoy without him. And 
it remains on record, as a fact to warn procrastinating 
men in every age, of the disappointments which they 
are preparing for themselves, that Terah, amidst all 
the invitations and privileges which he received, died 
at last an idolator in Haran. 

Has this fact then no practical connexion with our- 
selves? Does it not exhibit a striking illustration, of 
the folly and danger, of postponing until old age, our 
own commanded journey to the land of promise? 
May I not with much propriety, use it for an occasion, 
and as an instrument, of admonition, warning, and 
solemn appeal, to all who hear me, that they be wise in 



SER. XVIII.] DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 271 

time, and harden not their hearts against the voice of 
the living God? This is my present design. May- 
God, in great mercy, by his own Spirit, make it effect- 
ual and useful ! 

I. Let us consider the work which God requires 
sinful man to undertake. The call of Abraham from 
his country and home, is frequently employed, to illus- 
trate the great duty which is required of every sinful 
man. Like him, every one is commanded in the Gos- 
pel, to attain and exercise a simple controlling faith in 
the divine promises ; to follow in this spirit of faith, 
the peculiar commands of God the Saviour ; to go out 
in its reliance upon him, from a state of selfishness and 
idolatry, man's natural condition, to seek the better 
and heavenly country which is revealed in the Gospel, 
and offered in Christ Jesus, to every believing soul. 
The obedience of Abraham, in going out, not knowing 
whither he went, simply counting him faithful who had 
promised, and counting every thing else, as loss for his 
sake, exhibits just the duty, which the Saviour requires 
of all, to whom he gives the invitations of his word ; 
and just the duty which multitudes like Terah, post- 
pone, until it is too late to finish the work which is 
involved in it. Abraham's journey and the whole of 
his history, display the spiritual journey of the believ- 
ing man, through the difficulties and obstacles of life, 
to a kingdom and home of everlasting glory. ' They 
show faith, triumphing in contests, hoping against hope, 
not staggering in weakness, but strong in giving glory 
to God, ultimately crowned with the full attainment 
of all that it had looked for, and finding its possession 
an unspeakable reward. 

Such an exercise of faith developing itself in full and 



212 DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. [SER. XVIII. 

permanent obedience to the divine commands, is the 
work which God requires of all who hear the Gospel. 
The sinner in the idolatry and unbelief of his natural 
condition, is called upon by the word and Spirit of 
God, to arise, and get him out of this state, this land 
of enemies, to a better one, which God will show him. 
But when is this great work to be undertaken ? When 
shall man begin to subdue his rebellious heart into re- 
conciliation to the will of God ? May he select his 
own time for the work ? May he make every thing, 
or any thing else, of prior importance ? May he de- 
fine for himself, what will be the most convenient 
season, the most acceptable time for this purpose ? 

Surely not. The Scriptures never intimate a mo- 
ment beyond the time in which the command is ac- 
tually given, as the time for man's obedience. The 
morrow is not given to man. " Now," " to-day," are 
the divine designations of the proper time for man's 
submission. Whenever God speaks, it is that his will 
may be done at once. In the earliest youth of man, 
the divine appeals sound upon his conscience and 
heart ; impress solemn convictions of duty to God, and 
responsibility before him, upon the mind; and compel 
the sinner in the very morning of his rebellion, to re- 
flect upon the wages which must be paid to his trans- 
gression, when the day has closed. If these appeals 
are then heard, and immediately obeyed ; if the youth 
determine at once, to arise from his idolatry, to flee 
from his sins, and to return to the service and favour 
of God, for his shelter and delight, he is made secure 
forever. The journey upon which he enters, God will 
prosper. The Holy Spirit will lead him on, to a full 
enjoyment of the favour, and obedience of the com- 



SER. XVIII.] DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 273 

mands of God. He will find the ways of religion, to 
be ways of pleasantness. Its paths will minister peace 
to his soul. The promised land in all its glory shall 
be his. And he will never look upon the land from 
which he was taken, but with unfeigned gratitude, that 
God was pleased in such mercy, to rescue him from 
its darkness, danger, and condemnation. They that thus 
seek God early, shall find him, and shall find with 
him, assurance and peace forever. 

This return of the soul from sin to God, for which 
a new and living way has been opened in the death 
and power of the Lord Jesus, is the great work for 
which life is prolonged, and which man is required to 
complete in life, and is made able to complete, if he 
truly and early undertake it. But if the convictions 
of danger and duty, which are in youth impressed 
upon the mind, are made ineffectual, and man is not 
persuaded then to enter upon this work, most gene- 
rally he finds no period arrive in mature or aged life, 
when the conscience and the heart are willing to yield 
to God, or when the mind has time to think with 
sufficient care and interest, of the peace and pros- 
perity of the soul. He who rejects and disobeys the 
commands of God in his youth, is exceedingly un- 
likely to find the opportunity, or the disposition to 
obey in his subsequent years. 

II. Let us consider the course which men generally 
pursue in reference to this important matter. Do 
they, or do they not, generally obey at once? Do 
they, with Abraham, arise and go ? or do they more 
commonly with Terah, procrastinate the enterprise 
until it is too late to accomplish it at all ? The Scrip- 
tures teach nothing more plainly than God's gracious 

35 



274 DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. [SER. XVIII. 

desire, that all men should be saved, and come to the 
knowledge of the truth. They assure us, of the efforts 
of the divine Spirit within the heart of man, from the 
earliest period of his youth, to bring him into a cordial 
submission of himself to God. I presume to say, 
that the instance cannot be found, of one to whom the 
Holy Spirit has never showed the guiltiness of his 
character ; who has never had his conscience awaken- 
ed to feel and to acknowledge to himself at least, the 
solemn truth, that he was a sinner against God ; and 
who has, therefore, never been convinced of the ne- 
cessity of going out from his own condition of selfish- 
ness and sin, to gain a refuge from condemnation, in 
the land and city of God. 

Before we arrive at mature life, there have been 
very distinct views of duty impressed upon our minds 
under the religious instructions of the pulpit or the 
fireside ; under the occasional reading of the Scrip- 
tures for ourselves, or under the varied dispensations 
of divine Providence ; which place us entirely beyond 
excuse, in the sight of God, and in our own con- 
science, in going forward in the ways of sin, or re- 
maining in our natural condition of alienation from 
God. Amidst all these varied privileges and mercies, 
the great questions, who shall reign over us ? whom 
shall we serve ? are to be determined. And they are 
habitually determined in the morning of life. Men 
are reaping subsequently, as they have sown then. 
Some few accept with gratitude the blessed invita- 
tions of the Saviour, and unite themselves unto him, 
in a perpetual covenant, never to be forgotten. But 
what is the course pursued by the great majority of 
mankind? Do they not altogether drive away the 



SER. XVIII.] DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 215 

convictions of this early period? They refuse to 
yield their hearts and characters, to be thus subjected 
by the Holy Spirit to the service of God. They 
bargain with their consciences, in order to silence 
their awakened demands, that at some future period, 
they will attend to the duty required of them. They 
overwhelm and destroy the calls of God in their 
hearts, by rushing into worldly follies, vain society, 
and giddy, frivolous recreation. They not only turn 
a deaf ear to his voice, but they immerse themselves 
in distracting noise around, raising up a multitude of 
voices, that they may not be compelled to hear him. 
They often try to argue themselves into comfort and 
security, by building up a system of self-righteousness 
which shall be sufficient for their wants. Amidst the 
heedlessness of youth, and the occupations of matu- 
rity, they can manage very much to forget the pre- 
cious interests of their souls. And thus they allow 
their time and opportunities to pass silently away, all 
vacant and empty, in reference to any thing done for 
their soul's good. This is the course of multitudes, 
who find at last with astonishment, that age, and 
disease, and death, have come upon them, while no 
step has been taken towards the heavenly land to 
which God has so long invited them, and which he 
has been so willing to bestow upon them. 

In these cases, there is not, perhaps, a positive de- 
nial of the authority which calls them, or an actual 
refusal to acknowledge and submit to it. The plea 
of some better time to come, is the prevailing and 
sufficient one. None seriously design to throw away 
all regard to their eternal interests forever. On the 
contrary, they hope, and they believe, that the time 



216 DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. [SER. XVIII. 

will certainly come, when they shall find themselves 
to be so strongly drawn to an obedience to God, that 
they shall have no disposition to resist the divine 
control. They are far from wishing, or expecting to 
end their days in any other condition, than in the 
favour of God, and in the assurance of a participa- 
tion of the inheritance of the saints in light. They 
always trust, however indefinitely and without reason, 
that it will in some way be well for them in the end. 
But the one single demand for an actual, manifest, 
positive, immediate return to God; the act of per- 
sonal, voluntary reconciliation to him; the certain 
setting out upon a new and living way, so that they 
can say, "whereas I was blind, now I see;' 7 this, 
though the work of a moment, a point of time in 
their lives, they are constantly postponing to some 
future period. Thus most frequently, they live and 
die in their chosen idolatry and guilt ; always hearing 
the command, " arise and go," and always determin- 
ing that they will obey it ; but never putting their re- 
solution into effect. Like Terah, they die in Haran ; 
they perish amidst unfulfilled vows and attempts of 
obedience to God, and under the guilt and burden of 
actual rebellion against him. 

III. Let us trace the usual result of this course 
of procrastination. It will be but tracing the history 
and experience of the great proportion of mankind. 
Twenty years of the sinner's life go by. They are 
the most important, and in most cases, the deciding 
period of his existence, in reference to his eternal 
welfare. But their close finds him still unrenewed in 
his character, and hardening his mind and conscience 
against the power of the truth. He is just so much 



SER. XVIII.] DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 277 

farther from God, and from hope, by all the years 
which have passed thus unimproved. He is still in 
the region of darkness, and of the shadow of death. 
During this period, he has had the question of per- 
sonal piety repeatedly before him, and the influences 
of the Holy Spirit repeatedly contending with him. 
But he has thus far, succeeded in keeping the strong 
man of selfishness and unbelief armed, and in posses- 
sion of his house. He is at twenty years of age, still 
in his sins, and still an unconverted man. In the 
wonderful forbearance of God, twenty years more are 
added to these, all of them crowned with privileges, 
and with invitations to a better land. But the linger- 
ing sinner still refuses to arise and go. By this time, 
he has seen and felt much of the folly of things tem- 
poral, and of the emptiness of the heart which de- 
pends upon them. But he is hardened through the 
deceitfulness of sin ; and he is unwilling to make the 
decided and violent rupture which seems necessary if 
he would now effect his escape from an impending 
ruin. With more light in his conscience, he has more 
dulness and obduracy in his affections ; and the work 
of true piety grows more and more difficult. If 
twenty years more bring him to the verge of feeble- 
ness and death, he is still found more deeply anxious 
to obtain the hope which he does not possess, and 
which he finds it more and more impossible to get. 
By this time, he is mourning over nearly all his joys 
as departed forever. Almost every monument of his 
life seems to be a tomb. " Here lie the remains," is 
the inscription which he reads upon pleasures, and 
possessions, and hopes which are gone. 

This whole period of life has been a succession of 
2 A 



278 DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. [SER. XVIII. 

disappointments of all his calculations, in reference to 
his own state of mind and character. Maturity when 
it arrived, was very different from the pictures of it, 
which were seen in youth. It did not bring that 
coolness of judgment, that weariness of earthly plea- 
sures, and that disposition for serious pursuits, which 
were so confidently expected to be found as its cha- 
racteristics. If it had not the obstacles of youth, it 
was found to have greater ones of its own. The Re- 
deemer, whose invitations were answered by procras- 
tination before, was found to be with still more ease, 
and apparently with more reason, put off with pro- 
mises for the future, then. And now, old age is looked 
for to effect that, which youth and maturity have failed 
to accomplish. But here another disappointment 
comes. Old age also is very different in its character, 
from its anticipated appearance. Man then awakes 
to the sorrowful conviction, that he has been deluded 
through the whole of his course in life. He sees 
nothing of that spontaneous preparation for eternity, 
which he hoped to find in the later years of life. It 
is now harder, vastly harder, than it has ever been 
before, to lay hold of any adequate and abiding hope 
for a world to come. Lingering Terah sits down to 
measure up, in the sad calculation of his own expe- 
rience, the folly by which he has been so long de- 
ceived. The love of the world and the pride of self 
have grown upon his heart. Their roots have woven 
a complete, and an inextricable web, around his affec- 
tions and purposes. The Saviour who seemed to be 
so near to him in his youth, that he might be embraced 
in any moment, now stands in the distance, almost 
unperceived, apparently entirely beyond his reach. 



SER. XVIII.] DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 279 

The line which then separated him from the salvation 
of the Gospel, has now widened to a gulph which 
cannot be passed. And hope seems to have gone 
finally down, behind the mountains of darkness which 
rise before him. 

IV. What now becomes the result of this procrasti- 
nation? Generally one of two things. Either total, 
hardened, self-defending negligence ; or a partial, con- 
strained, and unsatisfying attention to the duties of 
religion. That is, Terah either positively refuses to 
obey the divine command, and remains to die as he has 
lived, in Chaldea ; or else, he unwillingly sets out un- 
der the lashes of an awakened conscience, and goes as 
far as Haran, and dies there, in a new condition in- 
deed, but with the same character. 

Some, as the result of this procrastination, finding 
every thing in their own state of mind, and in their 
facilities for reconciliation to God, so very different 
from their expectations, give up all hope of change, and 
resolve to die as they have lived. They try to work 
up a confidence which they do not feel, and to per- 
suade themselves of a security, for which they have 
really no hope. They affect an indifference which 
they are far enough from possessing, and attempt to 
acquire an insensibility which is still very remote from 
them. They will not bear the kindest language of 
admonition, or exhortation, or warning. They are 
determined not to be disturbed. They do not feel 
themselves in the right. They know just the difficulty 
which is before them. Their consciences are as 
thoroughly convinced of the character, and of the jus- 
tice, of the claims of piety, as they ever were. But 
they have resolved not to attempt a work which has 



280 DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. [SER. XVIII. 

now been so long postponed. And the result of their 
long-continued procrastination is, that they go down 
into the grave, self-condemned, and without hope, and 
vainly trying to conceal the consciousness of the fact, 
from the view of others around them. They have seen 
thousands go on to the land of promise, a blessed 
home, to which they have been invited from their very 
childhood, and they remain still to die in the darkness 
of Chaldea at the last. 

Others cannot bear the irritations of an awakened 
conscience, or the sense of want and dauger which 
presses upon them, and they therefore urge themselves 
to do something to fill up deficiences which are so 
plainly and painfully perceived; and to satisfy an 
eagerness, whose corrodings cannot be repressed. They 
put upon themselves, some kind of religious profes- 
sion. They give their time and countenance to some 
degree of religious duty. They devote a portion of 
their property to some benevolent or religious object. 
All this is easily done. It is done without any change 
in the heart and principles of the man. And many 
who have passed their life in a protracted neglect of 
true religion, are found at the last, attempting in this 
way, to do some good thing to obtain eternal life. 
Unwilling to remain absolutely disobedient to God's 
command in Chaldea, they go forward on the road to 
safety, as far as Haran ; they settle down in a form 
of godliness, without the power thereof ; or in the ap- 
probation of religion, without experiencing it; and 
thus sink into the grave, with as little hope or comfort, 
as if they had not moved a step, from the condition in 
which they were found at first. They worship God 
because they are afraid to refuse it. They offer him 



SER. XVIII.] DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 281 

an unwilling, heartless service. They are drawn to- 
wards him by no desire but to escape his wrath. They 
are driven forward in all they undertake, by the resist- 
less impression, that they shall perish if they do not do 
some thing, and by the selfish wish to do no more, than 
shall be absolutely necessary for their escape from 
woe. Though they go on to Haran, they remain the 
same disobedient servants towards God ; and they are 
as certainly rejected by him ; who has announced to 
them in a great variety of forms, his solemn determi- 
nation, to have all, or to take nothing. 

In one of these shapes, you will find the result of 
procrastination in religion. It leads men certainly for- 
ward, to a miserable grave, a departure from the world, 
without pardon, or holiness, or hope. Has this sub- 
ject no connexion with ourselves ? Is it of no interest 
to those who hear me ? It warns you, my beloved 
friends, that God the Saviour, must have your all, and 
be your all. You are not only to arise and go ; but 
you must go to the land which he will show you. 
Your hearts, the fountains of life, must be his. Your 
choice must be upon him, as the Being whom you will 
serve. Nothing short of a full conversion, an entire 
new birth, by the Holy Spirit, will answer your wants 
at any time. Christ dwells in no heart but where all 
things are made new. And without him, ye are no- 
thing. It warns you also, to gain this blessing now. 
Go with youthful Abram, or yet more youthful Lot, 
directly from Chaldea to Canaan. Stop not upon the 
road for any temptation. Stay for no future period 
of life. In the Spirit and power of God, which wait 
for you, arise and embark with Jesus. Enlist under 
his banner ; follow in his steps ; and remember always, 

2 A 2 36 



282 DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. [SER. XVI1L 

that safety is in being safe, and not in expecting to be 
safe ; in actually yielding the heart to the Saviour's 
will, and not in hoping to do it, or in determining to 
do it, in some future hour which may never arrive, and 
which if it does arrive ; will bring with it, its own por- 
tion of sorrows, and cares. Awake thou that sleepest, 
and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee 
light. Now is your accepted time; to-day is your 
day of salvation. 



SERMON XIX. 



INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. 



1 Kings ii. 28. — And Joab fled unto the tabernacle of the Lord, and 
caught hold on the horns of the altar. 

The holy Scriptures teach truth to man, not only 
by abstract precepts and instructions, but by living 
and impressive examples. They are for man a guide- 
book, as well as a history. They proclaim the prin- 
ciples by which he ought to be governed, and accord- 
ing to which he is to meet his final responsibility to 
God ; and they exhibit in every variety of shape, the 
actual use or neglect of these principles, in the con- 
duct of different individuals. In these important illus- 
trations, they hold up virtue and excellence triumph- 
ing in multiplied conflicts ; and iniquity however pros- 
pered and specious for a time, ultimately meeting its 
just and full reward. There is hardly an application 
of abstract principles of duty to the conduct and cir- 
cumstances of man possible, of which there is not 
some full and remarkable illustration in the sacred 
Scriptures, in the character and history of some indi- 
vidual man. And a consideration of the principle as 

283 



£84 INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. [SEE,. XIX. 

it is developed and operating in the history, becomes 
far more impressive and effectual, than a contempla- 
tion of itself abstractedly could ever be. 

Under this view it is wise in the preacher to select 
as a frequent subject for discourse, the actual examples 
which the Scriptures give, of the operation of the in- 
structions which he wishes to enforce. With this in- 
tent, I would present to you, the history of Joab, as 
an illustration of the invalidity of a voluntarily late 
repentance ; of the presumption of looking forward 
to the hour of death, as a time in which to call for 
protection and hope from him, to whom we have 
refused to yield obedience in life. Many of you are 
familiar with the incidents of Joab's history. He 
was in many respects a great and remarkable man. 
He was one of the most valiant and powerful men of 
his time. He performed important services for the 
king, to whom he was nearly related in blood, and 
he was faithful to his interests. He was made the 
general of David's armies upon the occasion of his 
conquest of the city of Jerusalem, when he displayed 
peculiar bravery, and he continued in this important 
post for more than thirty years. He was, therefore, 
an elevated, honoured, and prosperous man ; one even 
too important for the just authority of the king. He 
had gained in earthly station, and in the wealth of this 
world, all that the ambition of a subject could ask; 
second to none but his monarch, and even rivalling 
him in influence and power. All he could imagine of 
human greatness, was in his possession. 

He had also passed his life amidst all the privileges 
of religion. Although he was a man of war, he had all 
the advantages and opportunities which David himself 



SER. XIX.] INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. 285 

had, to gain and to cultivate the principles of truth and 
holiness. The worship of the sanctuary of Jehovah 
with all the blessings which it conferred, were freely 
his ; and he might, and he ought to have laid hold on 
the hope of Israel, and to have had his hoary head 
found in the way of righteousness ; and thus to have 
been in his old age, as much honoured for his piety as 
he was for his station. 

But Joab passed a proud and prosperous life, with- 
out submitting himself to the authority, or seeking the 
favour of God. He was a cruel, revengeful, and im- 
perious man. He suffered his own vindictive spirit to 
imbrue his hands in causeless blood. The will of his 
Creator kept him not back, even from revenge and 
murder; and he was too elevated in life to be re- 
strained by inferior circumstances. He could carry 
out the purposes of his wicked heart, without fear of 
consequences from man; and no sense of responsi- 
bility to God was present in his mind, to keep him 
back, from the extreme of evil. In his long and pros- 
pered life, he might have been the instrument of vast 
blessings to others. But the man who lives without 
God cannot live as a blessing to his fellow-men. The 
blessing of God is not with any thing that he does. 

But now Joab comes to old age, and his character 
remains entirely unchanged. He engages with Ado- 
nijah in his unnatural rebellion against the aged king, 
to whose cause he had been so faithful while the 
power was with him, and thus prepares himself for 
the punishment which must in justice overtake him. 
David delivers him over to Solomon his son, with the 
injunction, " thou knowest what Joab did to me, how 
he shed the blood of war in peace ; do thou, there- 



286 INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. [SEE,. XIX. 

fore, according to thy wisdom, and let not his hoar 
head go down to the grave in peace." And when the 
intelligence came to Joab, that Adonijah was put to 
death, and Abiathar the priest was banished, his guilty 
conscience warned him of his exposure to similar con- 
demnation. He fled to Gibeon, and concealed him- 
self for protection in the tabernacle of the Lord, and 
caught hold on the horns of the altar. Foolish man ! 
If he had accustomed himself to seek for counsel at 
this tabernacle in previous life, he would not now have 
needed to fly to it for such protection. But the worst 
of men are glad to make use of God's ordinances for 
their own selfish advantage. Necessity will drive the 
most profane in a hypocritical profession to God. 

But there was no protection for impenitent guilt 
at the altar. The divine law was, in regard to 
the murderer, " thou shalt take him even from 
mine altar, that he may die." And Joab, the aged 
rebel, perishes in guilt, even while he clings to the 
altar for protection. His flying there, driven by fear, 
when all other refuge had failed, and destruction was 
rapidly coming upon iniquity as its recompense, fur- 
nished him no deliverance. No desire for God led 
him to the tabernacle. A fear of punishment drove 
him thither. He had no longing to be a doorkeeper 
in the house of the Lord. He would far rather 
dwell in the tents of ungodliness. And this fear- 
extorted cry for mercy, in the hour of his sorrow, 
upon him whom he had despised, and whose law he 
had trodden under his feet, could furnish no expiation 
for his guilt, and no hope for his soul. Joab was not 
a penitent, though he clung to the altar. His soul 
eould not go out in peace, though he expired in the 



SER. XIX.] INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. 287 

tabernacle of God. He died amidst cries for mercy, 
and yet he died without mercy, and without hope. 

How very important is the admonition which is 
here furnished ! What multitudes, like Joab, attempt 
to compensate for a life of sin, by an ineffectual at- 
tempt to return to God in the hour of death, and en- 
courage themselves to hope, that their wicked and 
persevering neglect of him will be wholly forgotten, 
if they ask his forgiveness, when they can rebel no 
longer ! This is the whole consolation and hope of 
an immense portion of mankind. The only answer 
which they make to the invitations of the Gospel, is, 
that though they acknowledge their importance, they 
are not yet prepared to attend to them ; but they 
promise adequate consideration of them, when the 
more pressing business of their lives shall pass by. 
Their hearts are in the world, and they will live to 
that. But their future, everlasting safety, can only 
be with God, and they will still endeavour to die in 
peace with him. According to this vain and wicked 
plan, they refuse subjection to the Lord of all, during 
the period in which they can in any manner honour 
him, and promise to bring the lame, and the blind, and 
the torn, and the sick, as an offering upon his altar at 
the last. How solemnly God says to such, " cursed be 
the deceiver, that hath in his flock a male, and voweth 
and sacrificeth unto the Lord, a corrupt thing; for I 
am a great king, saith the Lord of hosts, and my 
name is dreadful among the heathen !" The Scrip- 
tures warn men very distinctly of their total want of 
hope and comfort in prospect, while they live in the 
midst of the privileges of the Gospel, in neglect of 
God, and design to embrace at last, the blessings 



288 INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. [SER. XIX. 

which they have so long voluntarily rejected. What 
the history of Joab illustrates, the parable of the ten 
virgins is designed expressly to teach and enforce ; and 
many warnings of Almighty God, repeat the same tes- 
timony. The sinful man who is now living to himself, 
without God in the world, and hoping ultimately to 
find peace with God, in the return of his soul to him, 
in sickness, or age, or death, is certainly deceiving 
himself, with a promise which will be his ruin. Though 
fear may drive him at last to the horns of the altar, no 
protection will be there afforded to him, from the result 
of his own folly and guilt. 

This LATE AND INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE, I propose 

to consider, as a subject of important instruction. 

I. I remark upon it, that such a running at the last 
to the tabernacle, will be wholly unavailing for any 
good, because it is entirely deficient in the proper 
motive of obedience. The distinguishing motive of an 
acceptable return to God, is a love for his character, 
and a desire for his service. This must always be the 
principle which guides a sinner in a true return of his 
soul to God. A godly sorrow for sin respects the 
honour of God which is involved in transgression. It 
is moved, not by a conviction of danger, and a fear of 
evil, but by a view of the dishonour which iniquity 
brings to God, and the ungrateful neglect which it 
displays of his kindness and mercy. It sees the love 
of Jesus, and the hatefulness of the sin which has re- 
paid it ; and turns back with mourning, for that which 
has crucified the Lord of glory. Affliction and distress 
as they reveal the emptiness of the world, may indeed 
be the occasion which arrests the attention of man, 
and in consequence of which he is led by the Holy 



SER. XIX.] INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. 289 

Spirit, to proper views of himself, and of God, and to 
a cordial desire to be made holy as God is holy. But 
when the worldly minded sinner calculates upon this 
in his dying hours, he is hoping for that, for which he 
will then have neither opportunity nor time. If he is 
awakened at all then, it will be by fear. A solemn 
conviction of the just wrath of God may press upon 
his mind ; and he may be compelled, under its burden, 
to ask forgiveness. But he has then no love for God, 
no wish to be like him, no real sorrow for having ofc 
fended him. It would be a welcome relief to his mind, 
if he could be convinced, that there is no God, or that 
if he exists, he will not enter into judgment with un- 
godly men. These conclusions are both impossible. 
And as a cry for a Saviour's mercy seems to be the 
only method left, by which he may escape the perdi- 
tion of his soul, he recurs to that. Let him live again, 
and he has no love for goodness. Even now he is 
more averse to the real character of God, than he has 
ever been. Heaven and holiness have no charms. 
But hell has unutterable terrors. He flies therefore 
to the tabernacle for refuge. But let the wrath to 
come be removed ; let the sword of justice be with- 
drawn; and he would leave the tabernacle just as 
quickly. Such a professed return to God as this is 
wholly useless. The door is shut ; and loud as may 
be the cry for admission, it is uttered in vain. God is 
a God of love ; and he governs his creatures by love, 
and not by terror. When they return to him, because 
they love him, and wish to serve him, he welcomes and 
receives them. But when they are driven back to 
him, because they are afraid of him, although they 
hate him, he allows no such motive to operate in his 
2 B 37 



290 INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. [SER. XIX. 

dominion. He will receive no subject whose conduct 
says, " I serve thee because I am afraid to rebel longer 
against thee." Yet this is the language of the sinner's 
late repentance, his final apparent return to God. 
Without penitence, without love, without desire for 
God, he wishes for just so much interest in the religion 
of the Gospel, as will save him from approaching ruin, 
and no more. And he clings to the horns of the altar, 
because he hopes, that he may there escape destruc- 
tion. But while this motive is wholly unacceptable, 
the act to which it leads is equally vain. Even the 
altar affords him no protection then. 

II. I remark that such an apparent return to God 
in our last hours, is ineffective, because it allows no 
time to accomplish the important work. I do not 
speak now of the man who has never heard the blessed 
tidings of a Saviour, until this late hour ; but of the 
man whose life has been passed amidst the full privi- 
leges of the Gospel, and who has no new message to 
be delivered to him in the hour of his death. Such an 
one has professed that he had no time to perfect this 
return to God in his life and health, though he ac- 
knowledged it to be necessary ; and he will in fact, 
have no time to do it in the hours of sickness, and 
age, and death. It is vain to say, that God may then 
pluck him in a moment as a brand from the burning. 
So he might have done at any previous time of his life. 
But he did not do it then; and there is not the 
slightest ground for hope, that he will do it now. 

What is an acceptable return to God for sinful 
man ? The point of turning is a moment unquestion- 
ably. Conversion is in this view an indivisible act. 
But how much there is of knowledge, and conviction, 



SER. XIX.] INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. 291 

and feeling, to precede it ! And how numerous and 
important, are the duties which result from it ! Now 
the dying man has no time for these. A real return 
to God is exhibited in the obedience which flows from 
conversion. And it is worse than vain, to found a 
hope upon any conversion which does not result in such 
obedience. It may be said, there is a promise, that he 
that believeth shall be saved. I answer it does not 
meet the case which I suppose. What remains to be 
told to any unrenewed sinner under the blessings of 
the Gospel, in the hour of his death, which he did not 
believe and know before ? Will the simple cry for a 
Saviour's mercy which results in no obedience, is the 
parent of no new life, avail him now ? And why will 
it be more availing then? You answer that there is no 
time then for any thing else. This is just my assertion. 
There is no time for anything then, which can be effec- 
tive. There is no time for a real return to God. And 
whose fault is it, that there is no time ? Is it God's, who 
has lengthened out the sinner's days, with wonderful 
forbearance ? or is it the sinner's, who has refused to 
do the work for which life was given, until there re- 
mains no time to do it at all ? If you determine thus 
to rob God of that which he claims, it will be useless 
for you at the last, to bring the poor remnant which is 
left. Like Ananias, you keep back a part of that 
which is demanded, and bring a portion, under the 
false assertion that it is all you have. You may as 
well determine to keep the whole. You may as safely 
resolve to abide in your own house unto the end, as to 
plan a running to the tabernacle when all your many 
days have thus been numbered in guilt. It will then 
be impossible to accomplish what you propose to un- 



292 INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. [SER. XIX. 

dertake, and mercy so long despised, will have gone 
from you forever. 

III. I remark upon this projected repentance, that 
it is ineffective for good, because it is itself an act of 
rebellion against God. He has in abundant mercy, 
opened a way for sinful men to return to him in peace. 
He gives them, all the opportunities, all the means, and 
all the assistance, which they need in order to perfect 
this return to his favour, and then solemnly warns 
them, that it must be done in a limited and appointed 
time. He urges them to strive to enter into the nar- 
row gate which he has opened, under the assurance, 
that many will ultimately try to enter in, who shall 
not be able. He directs their notice to an hour, when 
the master of the house will have risen up and shut to 
the door ; and he declares, that then all cries without 
for entrance, will be in vain. He teaches us that sin- 
ful man has no right to mercy, no claim upon God ; 
and that all which is offered him, is upon God's own 
terms, and in God's own way ; and that unless he take 
advantage of these offers in an appointed time, he will 
lose all hope arising from them forever. But what 
does the man do, who still looks for a more convenient 
season for his reconciliation unto God, but directly 
contradict and falsify, these positive assertions of the 
God of truth? And of what more positive act of re- 
bellion against God can man be guilty, than is involved 
in this determination which says, " in defiance of all 
thy warnings, I will not return unto thee, till the 
hour of death, and then I know, that notwithstanding 
all thy threatenings so often repeated, thou canst not, 
and wilt not cast me out?" Here is a direct contest 
between man and his Creator. All heavenly beings 



SER. XIX.] INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. 293 

are looking upon the issue. And what would be the 
effect of God's acceptance of this wilfully postponed 
submission to himself, but giving countenance to re- 
bellion against himself, and showing a fickleness of 
government, the supposition of which is impossible? 
How strange does it seem, that the very calculation 
which man thus makes, upon the actions of God, would, 
if they should be sustained by facts, so destroy the 
excellence of his character, and the stability of his 
government, as to annul all his claims upon the ho- 
mage of his creatures, and make man's return to him 
at all, rather a disgrace, than a duty ! 'And where is 
the difference in principle, between making a god of 
wood or stone, and worshipping that, and thus making 
a god in the imagination, supple to the purposes, and 
complying with the corruptions of sinful men, and 
promising to yield a final submission and homage to 
him ? Either God is a faithful and true God, a great 
and everlasting King who changes not, or he is desti- 
tute of the attributes, which can claim or deserve the 
reverence of his creatures. Under the first view of 
his character, the hope of propitiating him in a volun- 
tarily late repentance, by the determination to cling to 
the horns of the altar, after a life of impenitent sin, is a 
manifest rebellion against him, and contempt of his 
authority and truth. It can only become availing, 
upon the supposition that he is so changeable, that he 
cannot claim the return of man, nor be depended upon 
to reward it, if it be offered. How wrong, how ruin- 
ous is it, thus to indulge, and to act upon a hope, 
which involves in its very essence, rebellion against 
God, and conceptions most derogatory to his character 
and government ! 
2b2 



294 INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. [SER. XIX. 

IV. I remark upon such a proposed return as in- 
effective, because its allowed success would overturn 
all the purposes of God in regard to men, for which 
the Gospel has provided. Its acceptance by him 
would altogether annihilate the design and operation 
of the Gospel. The great purpose of God in the gift 
of his Son, is the restoration of man from sin to 
obedience ; the cleansing of him from guilt and con- 
demnation, that he may serve God in holiness and 
righteousness before him all the days of his life. The 
proper and designed operation of the Gospel, is to 
annihilate the actual rebellion of the world ; to re- 
duce its living inhabitants into subjection to their 
Creator, and thus to restore his dominion here, in 
perfect and eternal peace. Man can be a co-worker 
together with God in accomplishing this end, only by 
submitting his heart at once and entirely, to the holy 
and sanctifying power of the grace of God, by accept- 
ing forgiveness when it is first offered, and by gladly 
returning to the appointed Mediator for his soul, that 
he may be the Lord's forever. The Gospel offers 
him the unspeakable privilege of coming back into 
communion and peace with God. And unless he see 
it as a privilege, and gladly embrace it as such, it 
offers him no hope in its provisions. Should the 
Gospel accomplish this full purpose of God in the 
world, entire holiness would follow immediately upon 
its proclamation throughout the earth, and all men 
who heard it, would become under its influence, the 
people of God. But what would be the effect, should 
all men follow the example of him who looks for his 
comfort and security in a late repentance? God 
would have no servants upon the earth. None would 



SER. XIX.] INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. 295 

remain to proclaim the glad tidings of redemption to 
others. The very sound of the Gospel must cease 
among men, unless angels were sent from above to 
offer its mercies to their acceptance. The whole 
world would remain in a state of undistinguished re- 
bellion against God, and not a witness for him would 
be left upon the globe. The very hope which men 
thus indulge, of turning at last to God, thus condemns 
and destroys itself. It is necessary in its calculation, 
that there should be others who are not guided by its 
delusion ; others, who in greater fidelity, have before 
yielded to the divine will, and embraced the privileges 
which the Lord offers ; and are, therefore, competent 
to act as the messengers of his mercy, to those who 
have thus postponed their return to him. And in 
making this calculation, the success of their own ex- 
pectations can only be assured, in the acknowledgment 
of the wickedness and falsehood of the principles by 
which they are governed. How foolish and false is 
that hope which can only stand upon the annihilation 
of the very purposes and power upon which itself de- 
pends ! Nay, which can be indulged in fact and 
form only, because some others at least, are supposed 
to be guided by better principles to a safer course ! 
The very expectation, therefore, which plans such a 
return to God, shuts up against itself the avenue of 
mercy, destroys the design and usefulness of the Gos- 
pel, and like the scorpion in his circle of fire, puts an 
end to itself. 

Is not this a calculation upon an ineffective repent- 
ance ? Without an acceptable motive, without time 
to grow into life, involving in itself actual rebellion 
against God, and existing only upon the overturning 



296 INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. [SER. XIX. 

of his purposes, and the annihilation of his plans of 
grace to man, such a late repentance is wholly invalid 
and useless. Its root is rottenness ; its blossom goes 
up as dust. The sinner who is thus looking forward 
to a future late return to God, is destroying himself 
The man who comes to the last hour of his life with- 
out hope, will die without hope. We have an altar 
which furnishes abundant refuge to those who would 
escape from guilt; but no cover, or protection, or 
concealment, to those who would live in guilt, and 
still be rescued from its punishment and condemna- 
tion. If, like Joab, men will live to the world, and 
without God, like him they will indubitably find them- 
selves left to perish without hope. They will die 
even at the foot of the altar, in agony and despair. 
They will sink in eternal condemnation, though they 
then call upon Christ with whatever earnestness, 
Lord, Lord. 

What meanest thou, then, O sleeper ? Arise, and 
call upon God, if so be, thou perish not! Awake 
to-day, and embrace the blessed hand of love and 
kindness, that would lead you back in reconciliation 
unto God. Let him have that which he claims, the 
service of your lives, all that you can do to establish 
his authority, and to promote his glory. And do not, 
O do not, I beseech you, in the very face of inevitable 
certainty of ruin, still walk on amidst the foolish in- 
dulgences of sin, in the delusive, destructive hope, 
that you may come to God when you can sin no 
more. 



SERMON XX. 



THE LATTER END. 



Deuteronomy xxxii. 29. — that they were wise, that they understood 
this, that they would consider their latter end. 

We have considered the difficulties and sorrows 
which attend the aged man who is without an interest 
in the privileges and hopes of the Gospel. We have 
traced the usual course of man's procrastination in 
the great business of securing his eternal salvation, 
and seen the loss and disappointment to which it leads 
him. We have examined the foundation of that hope 
in which so many indulge, that after a life of voluntary 
sin and selfishness, they may still in the end repent, 
and turn to God, and find acceptance and safety with 
him, and seen how delusive and unsatisfactory it is, 
how useless it will prove to those who trust it. And 
now, the present text gives me the opportunity to 
conclude this important series of remark, by pressing 
upon the attention of my hearers, a timely and prac- 
tical improvement of the truths which they have heard, 
and a due consideration of the results which must 
follow from them. 

38 297 



298 THE LATTER END. [SER. XX. 

The instances among men, of the sinner's ruinous 
neglect of his soul and God, are numerous and dread- 
ful ; but they form no part of God's plan for them, 
nor do they meet or promote his pleasure. With an 
overflowing benevolence, he desires all men to become 
wise unto salvation. With unspeakable grace and 
goodness, he has made provision for them, that they 
may gain this blessed wisdom. And with a forbear- 
ance, whose persevering watchfulness never yields, 
until they have finally cast away his cords from them, 
he continues to entreat them to take advantage of his 
mercies, and to gain the wisdom which he desires to 
impart. If they go on through life in the ways of 
sin, it is in direct defiance of his desires and efforts 
in their behalf. If they mourn at last over the evils 
which they find in their chosen path, they are com- 
pelled to acquit him of all blame in their sufferings, 
and to acknowledge that their disappointments and 
woes are but a literal fulfilment of his gracious warn- 
ings which they rejected. God renders himself in 
all things connected with them, perfectly clear ; and 
neither his justice, his wisdom, or his goodness will 
be stained in the final punishment of the voluntarily 
ungodly. 

In our text, he exhibits his ardent desire for the 
ultimate safety and happiness of his creatures. With 
an eye which looks accurately into the future, and 
brings remote and apparently doubtful objects near, 
and makes them certain, he warns men of the conse- 
quences of a present course of rebellion and sin. He 
sees rocks which are concealed from their view, and 
dangers which they cannot know, but by his warning, 
until they try them ; and with the utmost faithfulness 



SER. XX.] THE LATTER END. 299 

and tenderness, he warns them of the approaching 
evil. And when he finds his warnings to be all in 
vain, and that men are determined to be taught, only 
by their own experience of evil ; he utters over them, 
the language of affectionate lamentation : " O that 
they were wise, that they understood this, that they 
would consider their latter end." 

This consideration of the latter end for our- 
selves, will claim your present attention. 

I. Reflect upon this consideration, as a course of 
wisdom. Man's comparative wisdom in the affairs 
of this life is wholly estimated, by his disposition to 
anticipate the results of his own actions, and his ability 
to calculate upon those results with success. He only 
is considered a wise man, who in every important en- 
gagement and undertaking, deliberately and seriously 
considers its latter end. If one should throw his 
capital into a scheme of merchandize, or embark with 
it in an inviting speculation, without a full con- 
sideration of the results to which he was likely to be 
brought, and a cautious inquiry into the steps by 
which his desired ends were to be gained, who would 
deem him a man of safe and practical wisdom? or 
who would pity him, but for his folly, if he was ruined 
in the adventure? If the mariner should loose his 
bark upon the ocean, without a plan for gaining any 
port or country beyond it, without a chart or compass 
to guide him on his way, nay, without having consi- 
dered in what direction he should steer, who would 
connect the attribute of wisdom with his name ? or 
who would wonder if he bilged upon the rocks, or 
was swallowed up in the fathomless abyss ? The fact 
is, that in all the engagements of his present life, man 



300 THE LATTER END. [SER. XX. 

from the necessity of the case, considers their latter 
end, and with all the wisdom which he can command, 
provides for what he presumes their several conclu- 
sions may be reasonably expected to require. 

The whole object of the Gospel is to bring to the 
service of God, and to the attainment of eternal 
gains, the same powers which man thus gives to him- 
self and the world. The whole of human life may 
be viewed as an adventure or a voyage, the character 
of which must be displayed in future unchangeable 
results. And man's true wisdom consists in shaping 
it for that prosperous and desirable issue, for which 
the mediation and offering of a Saviour has opened 
the way, and made the full provision. He is required 
to take a full view of his permanent condition, and 
his ultimate responsibilities ; and to act for the whole, 
upon the very principle of preparation for the future, 
which in the smaller parts, he finds to be the elements 
of success. And if the man is not wise who invests 
the whole of his earthly wealth in an unexamined 
scheme, and lightly says, " the end will take care of 
itself, or I will provide for it when it comes;" how 
can that same man be wise when he carelessly throws 
his soul's eternity into an adventure, and dashes head- 
long with it into a life of total disobedience to God, 
in the uncertain hope of amending deficiencies at the 
close of his experiment? Nothing but the fearful 
dominion of sin over the heart, alienating that heart 
entirely from God, can account for the strange incon- 
sistencies which man thus exhibits. This latter end, 
this issue of man's probation is of infinite importance, 
and leads to unalterable consequences. It cannot be 
provided for when it arrives, but may be abundantly 



SER. XX.] THE LATTER END. 301 

so, if undertaken in season. Surely then, he that is 
wise will consider it, and provide for it, while the op- 
portunity is granted to him. We cannot speak of 
any man who neglects its timely consideration, what- 
ever pretensions he may make, but as of one who 
loves simplicity and hates knowledge. We may pity 
him, but we must mourn over him also, in the ex- 
clamation of our text, " O that he were wise, that 
he understood this, that he would consider his latter 
end !." 

II. Reflect upon the circumstances connected with 
this latter end, which are especially to be considered. 

Consider the trials which will be involved in it. 
No one can doubt, that the close of human life must 
be to a rational man, a period of great anxiety. 
When every temporal hope, and interest, and comfort, 
is passing away ; when all the sweet and endearing 
connexions of the human station are to be broken up ; 
when countenances that have been seen, and places 
which have been known, for so long a time, are to be 
seen and known no more ; when unsustained by outward 
aid, and deprived of the possibility of resting longer 
upon the wisdom, or the affection of earthly friends, 
for encouragement or guidance, we are to be thrown 
as far as man is concerned, wholly upon our own re- 
sources, and must stand or fall alone ; when we are 
to try an experiment, of which, though millions have 
tried it before us, no one can tell us the result ; what 
man can doubt, that such circumstances must involve 
for us great and peculiar trials, or that the flesh and 
heart of man must fail beneath them ? Our condition 
is new. It is deeply mysterious. It is a change, not 
from one visible scene to another, but from all things 

2 C 



302 THE LATTER END. [SER. XX. 

which are visible, to something which is not and can- 
not be contemplated by the eye of man. In that 
hour, lethargy may seal up the sensibilities; rage and 
despair may overwhelm concern ; perhaps acquired 
stoicism may deride the danger. But to a man under 
the clear and calm influence of enlightened reason, it 
must be a period of oppressive anxiety. Nothing 
known to man, but the ascending hope of the Gospel, and 
the assurance of faith in a Saviour's power and pro- 
mise, that it will be fulfilled for us to the uttermost, 
can form amidst these trials an adequate support. 

Consider the peculiar wants which it will manifest. 
There may be no deficiency around of earthly com- 
forts. All that man or money can do, may be sup- 
posed collected, to mitigate the sorrows, to conceal the 
weakness, to alleviate the pain, and to dignify the condi- 
tion of the dying man. A grateful family may minister 
with affectionate tenderness. Sweet sympathy may fan 
the fainting spirit. And attendants well provided may 
anticipate every bodily want. But after all these, 
there are necessities developed, which these cannot 
supply. Divine revelation does not create or call forth 
these necessities. The ignorance of revelation cannot 
banish them. What are they ? The wants of a dying 
man ! He is entering upon a world inconceivably 
vast, and entirely unknown. Many loved ones have 
accompanied him to the edge of the wilderness, and 
encouraged him not to fear, as he enters into it, but he 
is to part from them all, and to go out alone, into, this 
pathless desert ; shrinking, trembling, anxious, doubt- 
ful, afraid, yet compelled to travel onward ; not know- 
ing what shall befall him there, but unable to forget 
that most solemn, perhaps tremendous, results are to 



SER. XX.] THE LATTER END. 303 

issue from every step. He wants a guide who shall 
be infallible, to take the hand while it is warm from 
the last earthly pressure, and to lead him forward, 
with a certain and inspiring confidence. He wants to 
hear a voice that can utter to him, there, where the 
accents of human affection have died upon his ear, 
the language of undoubted, inspiring, and tender en- 
couragement. He wants some garments of glory and 
beauty which may be clothed, upon a soul that is now 
unclothed from its mortal covering, and conceal the 
deformities which its nakedness displays. He wants 
an arm upon whose unbending steadfastness, he may 
rest the firmest pressure, when the last earthly em- 
brace has been unlocked ; and whose power can pro- 
tect and shield him amidst whatever may betide. He 
wants, and he has no comfort unless he gains, the cer- 
tain assurance of glory and immortality, which the 
accepted promises of the Gospel can alone impart. 
God the Saviour must be with him, in the fulness of 
his revealed sufficiency, or he cannot approach his latter 
end but with doubt and terror. 

Consider the results which must flow from it. The 
changes in our present life, are not only alleviated, but 
often annihilated in their painful influence, by the pro- 
bable revolutions which may soon altogether alter their 
distressing appearance and operation. But the results 
of man's latter end are unchangeable. There cannot 
be a more ruinous delusion, than that which exhibits to 
him, a possible future probation, after these issues of his 
present life have come to him in the hour of his death. 
The dying man is entering upon scenes whose char- 
acter he has already fixed beyond the power of change. 
He is to reap a harvest which he has sowed for him- 



304 THE LATTER END. [SER. XX. 

self. And how momentous is its character ! Shall 
he rise from the bed of death, like the phoenix from his 
ashes, in unalterable youth, and mount up the shining 
path to glory, amidst songs of surrounding praise, with 
a heart instinctively attuned to join this new song 
when it strikes his ear ? Shall he find himself trans- 
ported to unutterable elevation and bliss, standing 
before the Son of God, to partake of his glory and to 
triumph in his dominion? Or shall he sink into eter- 
nity, under a load which no created power can sustain, 
convulsing amidst despair and anguish, goaded by the 
consciousness of guilt, separated from all communion 
with the God of peace, crowded amidst beings who 
are only hateful and hating one another ? This is the 
alternative, the choice of results before him. One of 
these is to be the subject of his unavoidable expe- 
rience. And whichever it may be, its character and 
operation is unalterable forever. O, with what im- 
portance, does this succeeding eternity encompass the 
latter end of man ! And how certain must it be, that 
he alone is wise, who timely and adequately considers 
it! 

Consider the provisions which it will require. They 
must be something upon which the soul may feed, and 
in which it may stand secure. They must be fur- 
nished by some being who has power over the world 
to come. Plainly, man must have a perfect righteous- 
ness which he can present to God, in which all sin 
may be forgotten, and an undisputed title be found to 
eternal glory. Peradventures of safety will answer 
him no purpose. He must have a hope within him, 
and be able to give a reason of the hope which is in 
him ; a hope which shall be firm as an anchor for his 



SER. XX.] THE LATTER END. 305 

soul. No inducement will lead him forward with de- 
sire, or willingness, towards God, which does not mani- 
festly and entirely remove, the barrier between them 
which guilt has made, and assure the soul, that there 
is perfect peace for it with God. But nothing pre- 
tends to do this, save the sure mercies which are re- 
vealed in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. And no one, 
but he who has by a living faith appropriated these 
mercies unto himself, can ever say, that all doubt has 
fled, and calm full sunshine rests upon the bosom of 
eternity. All other hopes tremble and crack, and 
crush, beneath the weight which is imposed upon them, 
and leave the deluded man who has entrusted himself 
to them, to perish unprovided and alone. Man's 
latter end requires all the provisions of grace which 
the Gospel offers, and it will be satisfied and peaceful 
with nothing less. 

Consider the serious question, whether you have 
gained these provisions, and are therefore ready now, 
to test in your own experience, all that this latter end 
shall be able to bring to view. You are now compe- 
tent to understand this, in its importance, and its char- 
acter ; and to view it as it is presented to you, in all 
its magnitude and results. What you are thus com- 
petent to do, becomes a matter of absolute obligation 
upon you. And when you consider that it is impos- 
sible for a better or more advantageous time to arrive, 
for the arrangement of all your interests and hopes for 
eternity, and that it is extremely improbable, that any 
other opportunity will be granted to you equally desi- 
rable with the present, you cannot wonder, if your 
character as men of wisdom is wholly decided, by the 
course which you now pursue, in reference to this 
2 c 2 39 



306 THE LATTER END. [SER. XX. 

important subject. If you are wise, you will under- 
stand this, and consider your latter end. 

III. Upon the authority of the truths which have 
been thus presented to you, I trust I may now urge 
you, to a practicable fulfilment of this duty. The 
disadvantages of neglecting it, I have attempted at some 
extent to display ; and it would certainly seem, that 
no rational man could assume these fearful evils upon 
himself. The immense importance of attending to it, 
and attending to it in the proper season, stands before 
you as an entire parallel. When you consider the 
latter end of others, and contrast together the various 
issues of their lives ; when you behold the piety of 
youth and active life, rising into the joy and peace of a 
Christian's departure, and mark the final triumph of a 
soul, which has wisely considered and provided for its 
whole responsibility, you cannot fail to see, how much 
has been gained, by adopting the Gospel as the pow- 
erful and practical principle of conduct, in the morn- 
ing of man's day of grace. When you contrast with 
this, the barrenness and doubt, the agitation and regret, 
the anguish and despair, which distinguish the latter 
end of a sinful, worldly-minded man ; your whole soul 
rises up in the exclamation, " let me not come into 
their secret, nor be joined to their assembly !" Yet 
strange as it may seem, while all within, and all with- 
out, is thus urging you forward to a course of safety 
and interest, the trifling temptations which you per- 
fectly understand, and altogether despise, though you 
submit to them, are sufficient to lead you away into 
the permanent and ruinous captivity of sin. And 
things of eternal moment, messengers of the most 
High God, must stand and wait in the vestibule of your 



SER. XX.] THE LATTER END. 307 

minds, while crackling mirth, and scornful gain, and 
scoffing unbelief, are rioting with the madness of suc- 
cessful usurpers, in the halls within. O, strange per- 
version of an immortal spirit ! How unworthy does 
such a man become, of the dignity of his elevation, 
and the abundance of his privileges ! 

I would urge you with deep earnestness and affec- 
tion, to an immediate attention to the things which 
belong to your eternal peace. Bring home those 
alienated hearts, whose affections are scattered 
throughout the earth, and let them take advantage of 
the noble offers which are made to them of peace 
with God, and glory in the highest. Without holi- 
ness, the product of God's operations in a renewed 
heart, no man shall see the Lord. Your latter end 
will find no quietness or peace, unless it has been 
thus provided for, in a new birth of your souls unto 
righteousness, through the power of the Holy Ghost. 
Let faith triumph over the temptations of sense ; and 
prayer, in dependence upon God, assume the place of 
confidence in your own wisdom; and an humble seek- 
ing after God the Saviour, make the single principle 
and business of your life. Then shall your light 
break forth as brightness ; and God, even your own 
God, shall shine upon your souls in the fulness of his 
approbation and favour. Make the Redeemer of sin- 
ners, in the power of his Deity, and the offering of 
his humanity, in the worth of his righteousness, and 
the atonement of his death, the portion of your heart, 
and the comfort of your spirits ; and your fruit shall 
be unto holiness, and your end everlasting life. 

THE END. 



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